Creative Writing Quiet Spaces

Writer Nigel Wood is working with us on MMQS, leading creative writing sessions during our Tuesday Art Studio In TLC-St Lukes Art Project. Anyone is welcome to come along 6-7pm every Tuesday (please see our whats on page for dates) The writing group will be based on some of the themes that arise from the project - how noise affects our mental health

Here are some of the first poems from some of our participants

On Highfield Meadow

Adele Fowles

Feeling the wind on my face and tasting the rain Squelching through the slippery mud and calling my dog to come to me

Resting among the dense trees counting my breaths mindfully and being being being here now

Loving blossom leaves, berries, grasses and trees Cherishing the changing moments, hours and months

Discovering spiders’ webs that seem lit up by magic

Lying down in the green green grass With the dogs lead against my feet

In Orford Park

Carl Peploe

Sitting one evening in Orford Park

Watching the sun set in a big red ball

Then there came an army of quad bikes

With little Nigel Mansells riding them

They didn’t half make a noise With their engines They made a dog yelp and run off

What an interruption

The sun had gone again So off I went home To listen to Black Sabbath Or maybe Alice Cooper

Listen to the Birds

Muriel

Listen to the magpies

Listen to the starlings

Listen to the tits while eating sandwiches

Eating cakes and sharing it with the birds

while eating the crumbs out of the wrapping papers from the bins left in spots for the other users for their needs

Platt Fields

Margaret Kershaw

In Platt Fields you can get away from the traffic

In Platt Fields you can sit round the lake In Platt Fields you can listen to the birds In Platt Fields you can visit pet’s corner

In Platt Fields you can go to the funfair

In Platt Fields you can watch the bonfire

Piccadilly

Elton Darlo

In Piccadilly, Manchester there is a lot of activity

In Piccadilly Gardens there is homelessness

In Piccadilly Gardens there are political demos

In Piccadilly Gardens there are musicians

In Piccadilly Gardens there are playing areas

In Piccadilly Gardens there are water fountains

In Piccadilly Gardens there are lots of wood pigeons

In Piccadilly Gardens there are evangelical preachers

In Piccadilly Gardens there are various eating and drinking venues

Highfield County Park

Bernadette O’Hanrahan

In Highfield County Park,

it’s fresh and pure air In Highfield County Park you can walk for hours

In Highfield County Park you can feed carrots to the horses In Highfield County Park you can ride the horses

In Highfield County Park you can visit the farm In Highfield County Park you see lots of nice people and lovely dogs

In Highfield County Park you see lots of birds and listen to them singing – magpies, sparrows, robins

In Highfield County Park entering from Highfield Road you pass the wonderful allotments

Prestwich Clough

Carl Peploe

In the spring it is fresh and green

In the summer shady and cool In autumn full of wondrous colours

In the winter it is dead and cold

You can walk there and feel at peace

And hear the birds chirp And see the squirrels eat their nuts

And the doggies having walks

I first visited it when I was 7 To escape the summer heat I had a paddle in the brook – O what a joy that was!

I’ve visited it most years since

And it always brings me peace –

The sound of the babbling brook

And everything is love.