I was lucky enough to facilitate a writing workshop for the Stephen Joseph Outreach Festival on Saturday with my great friend Felix Hodcroft. We had a lovely group of six and took as our inspiration ‘Still Falls the Rain’ by Edith Sitwell and ‘A Drone Scans the Wreckage’ by Margaret Atwood. The discussions were lively and the writing done vibrant and engaging. It is surprising how much good work can be created in just five hours.

Hopefully some of the writing will appear on the SJT Outreach website soon: https://www.sjt.uk.com/OutReach.

The next event in the Edith Sitwell Festival 2014, Scarborough, will be ‘Taking Tea with Edith Sitwell’ on the 26th April, an hour’s performance of poetry and vignettes of Edith’s life served with tea and cakes. Cost £3. Tickets available from the 13^th of March, Tues-Fri, 10am-4pm, from the Scarborough Flare Office (Dave Lewis), Woodend, The Crescent, Scarborough, 01723 384523. www.ScarboroughFlare.co.uk.

Meanwhile, here is my poem from Saturday –

Staring into the parched landscape
hope is scarce.
It is easily lost,
slides down the back of the sofa
and we are left
with empty hands,
raw fingered from trying to claw it back.

Hope is easily lost,
and I’m not just talking
the feel good factor.
Real hope is slippery.

Real hope —
that secretive worm —
is an on-going choice,
taken everyday,
if we don’t want to lose it.