Getting Away

'Time Guards' Manfred Kielnhoffer, Cass Sculpture park

Shore Women go away together to write, read to each other and share workshop ideas. We have stayed in cottages, manor houses, and farmhouses. Though we usually stay on the island, we have ventured as far as Gorran Haven in Cornwall. We have enjoyed writing week-ends at North Court Manor, The Irex coastguard cottages at the Needles, Bonchurch Manor, The Garlic Farm and Rosetta Cottage on Cowes seafront. In 2010 we travelled to Lamledra, a lovely old house on the gorgeous Cornish coast. On days out we have also written at Ryde Cemetery, The Roman Villa, a Sandown beach hut, Tennyson's study at Farringford and the Cass Sculpture Park in Sussex.

North Court in Winter

As we recall the raspberry comfort of summer
Old grey stone stands in a darkening sky,
Rings to refrain of rooks high on the hill.
Chill green hellebores guard the door;
A snowman umpires the tennis court.
Arrow flights of duck-prints blaze the trail
Down to the fallen elegance of elm tree over stream;
Uncertain ice on the round pond
Hesitates before it melts.
Beside the torn lace of a chestnut leaf
A tiny white feather clings
To a fine red interlock of twigs.
Frost-kissed camellias blush and fade.
A multitude of gardens housed in one
Still holds the memory of last year's sun.

Shore Women Group

A snowman umpires the tennis court at NorthCourt in Shorwell

Readings Round the Island

Shore Women perform at venues around the island. We have a wide variety of group performance poems and individual poems. Best of all, we have a knack for being able to inspire others to write; many new writers (even very reluctant ones) are surprised at what they can do!

We have taken part in island events such as the Ryde Arts Festival, the Ventnor Fringe Festival, village fetes, and the Isle of Wight Literature Festival.  We have hosted events at Quay Arts,  Dimbola, and the Apollo theatre.  We are regular guests at Women's Institutes and we also read regularly at Open Mic poetry nights at Quay Arts in Newport.

Collaborations

Shore Women, both together and individually, work with a variety of other local and community groups such as The Poetry Society, West Wight Landscape Partnership, The Ramblers, Freshwater Circle Dance group and Ryde Social Heritage Group. Some Shore Women are members of the Island's Poetry Stanza. Joan Waddleton also belongs to the island's High Tide Poets group in Newport.

In the Poetry Society's centenary year we hosted a poetry picnic at Newtown and Felicity Fair Thompson worked alongside Andrew Motion at Tennyson's home in Freshwater during celebrations to commemorate the poet.

With Focus Ryde Imaging group we produced joint exhibitions of photographs and poetry, shown at the Full Circle Gallery, St. Mary's Hospital and at the Apollo Theatre, Newport. The poems and photographs have also been shown around the Island at other venues where Shore Women perform.

My nose wet
your fur soft
claws grip tight
so we waltz

Kate MacDonell's poem Polar Bears Dancing is from one of our workshops with the Freshwater Circle Dance group.

More pictures and poems..

The North South Project

In 2001-2002 Shore Women were involved in a joint writing project with Vane Women, a writing, performing and publishing collective based in County Durham. Rewriting THE MAP is a book of poems from the project - launched in 2003 in both Darlington and the Isle of Wight.

The theme of the North/South projects reflects the landscapes and identities of the Vane and Shore Women writing groups through a glorious mix of subjects: saints and sheep, Vikings and angels, fells and downs, juniper berries and blueberries, shepherds and sailors, cathedral and Standing Stone.

Mimi Khalvati describes the book as 'a force field of energy. The enthusiasm, laughter and friendship that went into its making comes through the poems and shapes them'.

71 pages and 54 poems, illustrated with line drawings, £6.95
ISBN 1-904409-024

Rewriting
 THE MAP

VANE SHORE WOMEN

The Wreck of the Irex:  Riddles of the Sea

The Irex shipwreck project, funded with a grant from the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership, began in November 2005 and continued throughout 2006 and the first half of 2007.  We ran workshops and poetry readings for a wide variety of community groups. Poems, workshops and  performances took place throughout the rural communities of West Wight and included writers, actors, schools, churches, libraries, WIs and writers at  HMP Albany.  In recognition of National Poetry Day in 2008 we screened our  DVD The Wreck of the Irex at Dimbola Lodge,  Freshwater, joined by Maggie Norton, poet laureate for South Cumbria in 2007.  Maggie's  DVD about the Lake District was also shown.

The Wreck of the Irex: Riddles of the Sea - The Irex shipwreck in Scratchell's Bay in 1890 is a fascinating story which we have presented through poetry and performance across the Isle of Wight. The Irex DVD is available through this site. It shows the live performance of the poems at Dimbola Lodge, Freshwater, and includes all characters in costume and some very clever screen editing. We performed to full houses at Niton Parish Church, West Wight Middle School and Dimbola Lodge Freshwater. In 2009 we performed for the Ryde Social Heritage Group as part of the Ryde Arts Festival.

Poems and pictures from the Irex performances...