Ebbing Tides | Shore Women

Poems and Pictures of Past Events

	Weekends away	Shorewomen regular retreats for writing
	Readings round the Island	Previous reading events
Collaborations	Photo exhibition	Focus Ryde Imaging Group photographs and poetry exhibition
	Rewriting the Map	The North/South Writing Project
	Shipwreck	The Irex shipwreck project

Weekends away

Shore Women go away once a year to write, read to each other and share workshop ideas. In November 2005 a week-end at the coastguard cottages above Alum Bay brought the Irex shipwreck project, followed up throughout 2006. Shore Women also enjoy regular week-end breaks at NorthCourt where the beautiful gardens are inspirational. Guest writers are sometimes invited to run workshops and share meals. Other writing days and week-ends have taken place at Bonchurch Manor, Tennyson's study at Farringford and mostly recently at the Cass Sculpture Park in Sussex..

A snowman umpires the tennis court.

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

Readings Round the Island

Shore Women have performed regularly at Dimbola Lodge, Freshwater where there is sure to be an appreciative audience, good food, and plenty of poems and music.

In winter each year they host an open Sunday afternoon of readings at the Apollo Theatre Newport. Themes to celebrate the coming of spring have been March (2006), The Year of the Rooster (2005), Leaping! (2004), New Beginnings (2003) and Moving Towards the Light (2002).

Shore Women also organise events for the Ryde Festival, the Isle of Wight Literature Festival, village fetes and Women's Institutes. They have a wide variety of group performance poems and individual poems on themes such as music, islands, journeys, and country life. Best of all, they 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!

Exhibitions with Ryde Photographers

Shore Women and Focus Ryde Imaging group have 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.

More pictures amd 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 on October 16th, 2003 at Ottakars Bookstores in Darlington and the Isle of Wight.

The theme of the project is North/South, reflecting the landscapes and identities of the two 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

It is also available at bookstores in the two regions and at other venues on the Isle of Wight.

Rewriting
THE MAP

The cover photo merges the woodland dell at Mottistone, IoW, and the High Force falls in Co. Durham.

VANE SHORE WOMEN

The Wreck of the Irex: Riddles of the Sea

The Irex shipwreck project, funded by the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership, began in November 2005 and continued throughout 2006 and the first half of 2007. 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.

Pictures from the Irex performances

The ship pictured here, a three-masted barque similar to the Irex, was crafted by prisoners at HMP Albany.

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