Poems and Stories

Headed up to Baronscourt in Northern Ireland last week (halfway between Omagh and Strabane)to put on two days of writing workshops for the Pushkin Trust. Founded by the Duchess of Abercorn, it's a wonderful programme involving students, teachers, student teachers, artists (writers, painters, musicians, composers etc) and environmentalists, from both sides of the border. The writing workshops are held in a log cabin by a lake, with a wood stove and candles. I've run workshops there for adults, but this week it was primary school children. Decided to use some Native Canadian artifacts I had collected in my travels, i.e. a rain stick, a birch bark berry basket, and a moose horn. They inspired wonderful poems and stories.