Narrative

with Emma

From The Seven Sisters by Niav Padelis

Autumn

Green ivy carpet

Necklace of dead bulrushes

Crunchy amber leaves.

Seafood

Lone sqwawking seagull

Hovers above nervous sea

Dives, rises with its prey.

Breeze

Grey sky tickles sea

Blowing gently rolling waves

Trapping loose shingle.

The Seven Sisters can be ordered here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seven-Sisters-Poetry-Book/dp/0957124309)

Narrative

Narrative is the art of understanding how events make a story, how point of view affects how we understand those events, and how words and sentences flow together to create new stories.

On the Deep Time project we have been looking at how narratives and poems (which are a kind of narrative) by famous and not-so-famous writers enhance our experience of the beautiful South Downs landscape at Seaford Head. Our lovely colleagues at the South Downs National Park have been helping us with this – we would like to say ‘thank you’ to them.

Creative reading and writing are proven to be good for your mental health, so have a go!

The spectacular landscape at Seaford Head is managed by Sussex Wildlife Trust https://sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/visit/seaford-head

Narrative and Landscape

Have a look at the links to pieces of writing below – ask yourself some questions about them:

Do you understand the piece? What is it about? What makes it pleasant or difficult to read?
What mood is the writer trying to convey to us? How are they feeling? How do you feel when you read it?
Did you enjoy it? If you didn’t – that’s fine! We all react to writing in different ways.
Which piece did you like best? What is it that affected you? What did it make you think about? Did it touch on memories or experiences of your own? Write these down.
Can you look closely at the piece and work out what techniques the writer is using – short words or long? Is it in a logical sequence, or fragmented? Is it written in the past tense or not? Is it prose or poetry? How do you know? Does it feel modern? If not, what can you tell about the time in which it was written?
What does the landscape represent in each piece of writing? What do the famous White Cliffs mean? What is a border? What is the relationship between people and the landscape?
Read each piece more than once – every time you will see something new.

Here are the links:

Three short poems from The Seven Sisters by Niav Padelis, poet and film-maker [link]

Article by Cole Moreton, Writer in Residence at the Belletout Lighthouse https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/15/migrants-cold-wet-frightened-crossing-channel-in-tiny-boats

Now that You Too Must Shortly Go by Eleanor Farjeon, poet, novelist and children’s author of the twentieth century https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57297/now-that-you-too-must-shortly-go

Look, We Have Coming to Dover! by Daljit Nagra https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/look-we-have-coming-to-dover/

The True Born Englishman by Daniel Defoe (1701) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44081/the-true-born-englishman

If you would like to, see if you can do your own writing about a landscape that you love.

Some people like to just write straight away, some like to make notes first. There is no correct way of doing it, so just give it a go! Here are some tips to get you started:

What is the first thought that came to mind in response to ‘landscape that you love’?
Where is it? When were you there? Who were you with? Was it warm cold, windy, sunny? What can you see?
What was underfoot? What happened before or after? How did you feel? What does the memory mean to you now?
Is this place somewhere you think about often? Or is this the first time in a while? Why is that?
Can you copy the techniques of any of the pieces of writing we have shared here? Is that easy or hard? Experiment.
Try reading your piece out loud. How does it sound?
Remember – words are a free and endless resource. They never run out, so you can write, edit, rewrite as many times as you like!

If you would like to share your piece of writing with us, please email it to ben@robinhoodhealth.org

We look forward to reading your work ☺

If you would like to listen to poems being read aloud, including by some of our most famous poets, go to www.poetryarchive.org

Learning poems by heart is great fun and fantastic for improving your memory and cognitive function – there are lots you can choose from here: https://www.poetrybyheart.org.uk/

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There is a new online book club looking at nature writing: go to Twitter (www.twitter.com) , create an account if you don’t already have one, and follow @RobMacFarlane #CoReadingVirus

The book they are reading at the moment is Nan Shepherd’s classic account of life in the Highlands of Scotland, The Living Mountain, which can be ordered by email from City Books in Hove (http://www.city-books.co.uk/ordering/) or the Kemptown Bookshop (https://www.kemptownbookshop.co.uk/contact-us/), or wherever you normally order books by post

Have fun!

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