Back to Writing SOON

Heading for the Tyrone Guthrie Centre for the Arts this month where I'll return at last to my travel diary The Deep Road to Santiago written in the haibun style of Matsuo Basho, 17th century master of haiku. He wrote about his pilgrimages around Japan in short passages of lyrical prose accompanied by haiku. His masterpiece Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Deep North) is known to every school child in Japan even as Dante's Commedia is known to every Italian. Like Basho, my haibun will feature landscape, shrines and churches, experiences with fellow pilgrims in hostels,convents and monasteries, and moments of magic and spiritual epiphany. The book also includes black ink drawings. Halfway through a second draft, I haven't looked at it for over a year. Last year I went a-wandering around Canada and India. This year I've been a taker of courses, attender of webinars and filler of forms (grants, residencies) as I upskill into creative tech, XR, digital and immersive art. Must admit, I'm looking forward to a dive back into old world writing.