Janet Charman and A.E. Stallings - Workshop 06/05/22

Hello, everyone.

Janet Charman was born in 1954 and grew up in the Hutt Valley and in Taranaki. After winning several awards for her writing, Charman is now based in Auckland, where she teaches.

Alicia Elsbeth Stallings was born in Georgia, USA, in 1968. As well as writing her own poetry, she is an expert translator of the classics.

A theme we can see in the first text is the moon, and more generally the night. Try to write on the subject of night-time.

A theme from the second text is the relationship between parent and child. You could write about such a relationship.

The structure of the first text is very short lines and no punctuation. You could attempt the same.

The structure of the second text is a single paragraph, but it makes use of the word "The" to open several of its lines. Think about sentences that star with the word "The".

Six words to attempt to incorporate into your writing from Charman: voice, coin, plain, wood, close, away.

Six words from Stallings: current, slow, elsewhere, shadows, shelter, struggle.

If you have a copy of The Exercise Book (Manhire, Duncum, Price & Wilkins), turn to page "#26: Two Exercises" for an additional challenge.

That's all. I hope you are inspired to write today.

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a fishing voice
by Janet Charman

a fishing voice
talked me
over the sill
into wet grass

i found the coin
moon
just within grasp

‘where’s the car?’
‘where’s the car?’ i asked

‘there is no car’ they said

there was the plain town
under our tired feet

treading down the nearly morning
till we came to the white wood hall

the white horse
stood on its hillside
browsing moonlight

close stars

out performed streetlights
sleeping parents

light years away

---

Fishing
by A.E. Stallings

The two of them stood in the middle water,
The current slipping away, quick and cold,
The sun slow at his zenith, sweating gold,
Once, in some sullen summer of father and daughter.
Maybe he regretted he had brought her—
She'd rather have been elsewhere, her look told—
Perhaps a year ago, but now too old.
Still, she remembered lessons he had taught her:
To cast towards shadows, where the sunlight fails
And fishes shelter in the undergrowth.
And when the unseen strikes, how all else pales
Beside the bright-dark struggle, the rainbow wroth,
Life and death weighed in the shining scales,
The invisible line pulled taut that links them both.