‘A Spring Bouquet’

Kirsty and I hosted a fun creative writing workshop (26th April) with some ESOL students at the Dundee International Women’s Centre. DIWC is a wonderful organisation working to improve the lives of women, helping them ‘to gain confidence, life skills, education and employability skills’ so they can thrive in the community.

 We brought in a spring bouquet of flowers (wild and cultivated) and asked the women gathered to describe what they see – in terms of colour, touch, look and smell etc – and write these words on little scraps of paper. We then asked them to write their response to the question, ‘What does this bouquet make me think of? We laid out all the paper scraps and played ‘fridge poetry’, intially cobbling words together to make sentences, and then feeling a way into the poem’s lines by selecting and assembling the scraps into a sentence, and then two and then more, until a whole poem was agreed upon by all. There was quite a bit of discsussion over what to pick!

Everyone also had a chance to make their individual poem from the words laid out, inserting a phrase or word in their mother tongue to give what they have written texture. Here are the results of that workshop. . .

A Spring Bouquet

Camellia, Forsythia, Hawthorn, Flowering Currant:
spring feeling and the pale pink of a young girl;
remind me also of my mother, the milky kindness of her touch.

White and blossom fresh. From deep maroon
to vibrant red − sunrise through a beach.
Early morning sunshine.

A breath of forest creeps through the window –
a newly married couple, promises and hope,
and then close to heaven. Petals flutter, confetti. . .

All is well.

Individual poems 

Yasmin Abdelhamid
New projects, memories
of family…Peace… Salam.

*

Sayeda Hoque Mithila
Silk petals, flowering wand of magic
Freedom…joy…
Pomegrantae Red. Ceria.

*

Eka Rahmi Syamsuddin 

Cherry red energy and confidence
equals the dignity of happiness.

*

Nadia Valencia 

Pink feels happy
Pink feels soft
Pink is hope – esperanza!
Like a happy ending of a love story.

*

Jade Wiggan
Moon pale, a glossy green sheen…
A fragile while elegance.
La Lune.

Monjita Dutta 

When the moon comes out
The jasmine is in flower.

Raindrops on my window,
Nature’s beauty
layered.

A yellow crown of flowers
Steals the light of dawn.

Spring feeling freshness
Reminds me of
Cute and bright colours.
Nature
Close to heaven…

*

Humaira Javaid 

Wind blows and the petals scatter
Like confetti flying,
Flowers fly
The petals flutter by…

Lemon yellow flowers shine
in independent flight
peach of white.

Lemon yellow petals
remind me of my bachpan,
my childhood, playing
in the fields.