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LETTER TO MY 14 YEAR OLD SELF

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Doug Dunn Dear Dougie It must be very strange to receive a letter from your older self! It’s something I’ve been asked to do by my Writing for Enjoyment teacher 50 years in your future. How are you? I often think about you but have never thought of writing you a letter. I know writing isn’t one of your strengths. You prefer reading about things like stars and planets and nature. You are finding English lessons a bit of a mystery, without the facts and figures found in the sciences. But it does get better. You’ll learn to write essays and a whole dissertation and get over your fear of reading aloud.   In fact, I’m reading this letter out aloud right now in a café to my writing group. I’ve even shown them a photo of you. I also know life seems tough with the schoolwork and also the bullying. I now know it used to happen a lot in boys schools, even by school teachers. Don’t worry too much, it will stop quite soon. Then there’s all the mystery around girls. You don’t get many chanc
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CONNECTED THROUGH CORONA – POP-UP GALERIE METAFOOR DE RENNE

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Amanda van Wallinga Haverkamp Harma de Roo 
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NAMING THE FUTURE by David ERDOS - Poem 10 from AT THE GATES

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  NAMING THE FUTURE       While most of us seek a fresh world, some of us                               Keep an eye on strange weather. In London today, Sun was shining despite the active bite in the air.   It was a new form of shock, a crack in the wind To remind us that if we are to be finally free Of our houses there may yet be borders behind which   We all will need to beware. These may range From the barriers of the heart to those of once familiar Countries, made all the more strange now that Brexit   Spreads its contagion like germ across ground That everyone from Blake to the Beatles sang of, If only to hold onto something. And yet this place   Was never that. Its empiric dream just playacting, With the horrors within less profound. From its Victorian Pomp to the violence inflicted under The Raj and in Kenya,   You will hear all sorts of end in the echo of that bloodstained Green sleeved sound. Of that time Pete Docherty’s drug singed Sprawl mumbled stuff, but only Ray Davies sa
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NOSTALGIA IN PANDEMIC

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Savitri Pema Inside my armour of disdain I  resist the lure\ of your marshy arms, till like a stealthy thief You crept over mossy banks my heart  too unsheath Like the bent trees on your horizon of whistling winds you pierced my mind with memories of rambles over purple heather over endless hills and gullies dark, to the music of bleating sheep. Like a desert wanderer seeking an oasis, I seek vertical horizons across a desolate terrain,  the mirage behind my  blinded vision,  yearning. In this land of sun soaked beaches and playground of oligarchs, of indolent  lotus eaters, I seek your barren landscape, Listening for Cathy calling to Heathcliff’s ghost.       ‘Nostalgia in The Pandemic’   is about not being able to travel back safely to my home during the pandemic. About missing the wild, windswept Yorkshire moors of my home county in the UK, despite realising how fortunate I am to be on a sunny Greek island in the Mediterranean.                
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'This is my day', a poem by Rachel Mathews-McKay

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‘This is My Day’ This is my day, these are my choices These are my actions and my changing voices. Many paths lay ahead and many paths I leave behind, Which way will I go, which way will I find? And you ask me to decide, You ask me to choose one way. But I can’t follow a single path, I am happy to stray. I don’t mean to get lost and I don’t mean to lose sight, I just mean that I’ll wander through the day and the night. And when I say wander I mean that I’ll venture, I mean that I’ll take chances and not live by a censor. For I am confident that opportunities will lead me to great things, I am open to life’s challenges and all that life brings. My heart is wide open to embrace and to share, And my mind is as hungry to learn and to dare.’ by Rachel Mathews-McKay, Dublin, Ireland Biography:  Rachel Mathews-Mckay – mixed race of Irish, Jamaican, Bermudian and Canadian heritage but born in Bradford, West Yorkshire. She has been settled in Dublin, Ireland for the past 21 years where, since 2
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Location: Dublin, Ireland
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Joyful Living by Anna Vilchis

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The Power of Joy One of the things that has helped me to overcome my own fears and anxiety, and one of the best things I’ve ever done in my life has been getting a dog during lockdown. The results have been incredible. Not only have I overcome my phobia of dogs that I’ve had for over 40 years, but it has brought so much joy and love into my life that I even decided to get a second dog out of the blue during the second lockdown. I feel a kind of freedom and joy unlike any I’ve ever felt before and that’s why I’m choosing to share this story here with you, to see if it can inspire you too, to pursue all your dreams and never let your fears stop you from doing anything in life, because if I can do it, anyone else can do it too. During lockdown, I finally began to enjoy my beautiful home. For the first time ever since I got my place, I’d been able to spend quality time at home and be here longer than for just sleeping and showering before heading out in the morning to yet another hectic d
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Location: London, UK
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I HAVE A VOICE TOO!

Diane Hands I have a voice too drama group is meeting on Wednesday’s and Saturday’s.  It is usually for just over an hour, not for a whole Saturday afternoon.  We still act out some of our pieces, ‘In the Ghetto’ and ‘Dr. Guttmann’s Journey from Germany to Stoke Mandeville are the favourites.  We also play memory games which helps us to remember lines when acting.  We also practice relaxation techniques which help when we get nervous, or forget our lines. I was asked by fellow authors for the second book hearts on the Rise Connecting Through Corona.   What had impacted this group of vulnerable adults. So I  asked each one of  the group what they missed, and what were they finding difficult.  Each one of them said that they missed going to work. I thought they would say missing seeing parents and going home for a weekend. They also missed being able to go different places on public transport or in a taxi.  Only being able to walk to the Grocery store and back again.  Not being able to t
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