Sara-Jane Arbury is back with the zoom poetry workshops.
Theme poetry was about driving and her presentation was about the history of driving. However as ever, when it came to writing a poem I took a different approach to the the topic.
Being Driven
What’s driving you?
Is it success – a good job?
A fancy car, a business czar?
Status, money?
People pretending you’re funny
and laughing at your dubious jokes?
What’s driving you?
The need for admiration
The positive strokes?
The recognition of peers
despite the aversion colleagues feel
towards the version of you
that you promote?
What’s driving you?
What’s this compulsion
to achieve such commendation?
Where is the humility,
the self-awareness
and the compassion?
Write Poetry was about telling a story through poetry. The second suggested exercise was to write a monologue.
In Residence 2026
My dearest friend,how I appreciate
your prayers. In the night’s almost silence
they comfort me. Unknown rustlings
in the shrubs and trees surround me.
I’m alone in this apartment, alone in the park.
Only the twinkling lights across the river mouth
assure me that human life continues.
Sleep comes slowly. Reading past midnight,
in the hope that sleep will overcome
the apprehension of living companionless,
in an unfamiliar apartment,
in an unknown city, in a foreign land.
Daybreak. And messages from home.
Early morning risers jog past my balcony.
The café next door is open for breakfast.
The anxiety of the nighttime has passed.
The curtains opened to another day
of unexplored creativity.
Looking forward to the next session.
Thanks for joining me today
Bernice
