A couple of days at Långbro folk high school
It feels quite nice when you’ve actually got some writing done as planned, and it’s not the middle of the night. I didn’t think I’d have anything to put in my portfolio for the Creative Writing/CWA deadline on Wednesday, but last week’s meeting in Stockholm was productive in that sense.
Sofie arrived Thursday, after having had a couple of hectic days in Gothenburg taking tests for admittance to film schools. Hope she gets in.
I didn’t see her until Friday though, since I was at a party that evening, arranged by the journalists’ union at work. It was held at Tantogården and was quite a lot of fun. The asian buffet was great. I drank a lot of beer and got home at 3.30 in the morning.
As I had been to KGB the previous evening I wasn’t in the best of shape when the CWA meeting started Friday. Yet that turned out to be the productive day of the two.
Not a lot of people had made it for the meeting. That of course gave the brave few who were there the advantage of more time per person for feedback.
After a couple of writing exercises we got to the main attraction – the workshop with Fred Lane. Fred is a teacher at Långbro folk highschool, the place of the meeting. He also plays in a steel band. The workshop was about writing lyrics, and he had some interesting observations about the differences and similarities between lyrics and poems.
The exercise that I liked was to write lyrics starting with He is ___, he is ___, he is ____ – the blanks being filled in with one word each. This was to be written in the perspective of one of two carachters we had worked with earlier, writing a typical meeting between the two.
Here’s my attempt. I think it’s a song for a musical. :-)
“He is funny, he is carefree, he is new
Like a playful ray of sunlight
He breaks through every cloud
With an absolute assurance
He’s the centre of the crowd
He is everything I thought that I would never be
And yet he feels so very close to me
He has sunburn, he has dreadlocks, he has jeans
He doesn’t deal with routines
Doesn’t use a knife or fork
He’s messy and he’s noisy
His wine comes without cork
He is everything let loose that I’ve fought to control
And yet he plays the music of my soul
He is everything I thought that I would never be
And yet he feels so very close to me
He adds colour, he adds laughter, he adds truth
He brings meaning to my wanderings
Sets a purpose to the strife
He’s a challenge and he knows it
He’s the puzzle of my life
He is everything I thought that I would never be
And yet he feels so very close to me”
Well, I only had 40 minutes… :-)
In the evening we had some wine and a good talk, just William, Sofie, Gitta, Micke and I staying on for a few hours. As always, conversations were interesting. William is invited to the White House for a class reunion with Dubya. Apparently they went to Yale together.
K came to pick us up, and we were to give Gitta a lift to Saltsjö-Boo where she looks after a house and cat for a few weeks. Only problem was none of us knew how to get there. :) Well, a couple of phone calls and a lot of driving got us there eventually.
The second day of the meeting was to be the last. Originally it was planned to last ’til Sunday, but with so few of us there, we decided that two days was enough. I had no inspiration at all the second day, feeling very sleepy.
It’s a good thing I have two days off this week.
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