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  • Writer's pictureDavid Mclaughlan

WEEK 2 - THE OLD FAMILIAR JOURNEY




Week one brought a nice collection of New Year pieces. So, onwards!


For Week 2 Jo Bell suggests tackling the journey. It's a time of year when many people will be returning to work, rejoining the old familiar commute. The suggestion is that you take that, or another familiar journey, and depict it as it might be seen through fresh eyes.

You might be tempted to make the journey specifically for this purpose. I'd recommend that. And the type of journey, or how you make it, is entirely up to you.

The accompanying poem, Desire Lines, might not seem to fit those guidelines, but, hey, guidelines are for transgressing!


Desire Lines by Matt Merritt


"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." Ralph Waldo Emerson


Drought or drench draw them more clearly,

teach the secret geometry of hidden

or half-arsed purpose. For Each


ribbon of rained-on intent,

tramped-down meander of resolve

that hardens into lane or jitty,


or even city street, another ten

remain as freehand scrawls, scribbles

at best, the chords and tangents


of long-forgotten arcs. A season's growth

softens edges, a work-crew and a one-off budget

tame the snake in the grass, or divide head


from tail, but a few days of scorching sun,

a week of winter, can reunite both

or sharpen the top-down perspective,


until each waste-ground's a history

of every passing idea and impulse, half-buried, half-

realised, but still being dreamed.




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