tacked, taped and nailed

Yesterday morning Phil and I were working in the Four Acre Library. The venue has become wonderfully familiar now and in turn Phil and I are not such a strange sight to the locals. A number of times children in the library have recognised us from the workshop we did in the local school and said hello, Phil recounts how when he's cycling to catch the train local children are smiling and waving and saying 'hello, and there's the poet!' Its a slow process getting to know a new community, but it feels like we are making a small step in the right direction.

Margaret Clarke writing poetic line on tablecloth

Yesterday we worked with a great mix of older people including a couple we met during 1 to 1 sessions, one woman we met during our drop in session at the local Tesco's, another we first met at the session in the Doctors Waiting room- its great to see these more unusual venues paying back with participants joining the group at the Library.

Sid Saunders writing poetic text on tablecloth

We worked on the theme of 'make do and mend' and after some very lively reminiscence, we focussed on stitching- from repairing clothes to making cloggs from boots to pulling out the stitches on a cut arm...
Short poetic lines where selected from the reminiscence and written onto the tablecloth (and will be embellished with stitch at another day) It reads:

God Grant that I may see the stitch until my dying day
boots when they wore away
take them to the cloggers
tacked taped and nailed to turn them to
sparking clogs
pit drawers
sew them with shot fire wire when they riped
we riped the oil cloth off the floor
to burn it to get us warm
bless this house and the family that live within
the work I have done
lives on.

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