I see in the latest edition of the Irish Writers Centre newsletter that DWW member Jessica Foley is launching a new concept in writing workshops … the idea is to create a forum for writers to come together to share and discuss work and ideas. You can get more details on her blogspace at http://thisisnotashopwriting.blogspot.com … the workshop will be meeting tonight, Friday 20th, at 8.15pm at the Irish Writers Centre, Parnell Square.

Branches of an early summer Musk Rose (Rosa moschata),
bush ramble the hot stone walls and carry
the scent of summer. Pink and white blooms
tangle with the lilac flush of Wisteria’s (Wisteria)
pendulous racemes. We enter the garden and see
that bridge traversing the water, those as yet unopened
Waterlilies (Nymphaeaceae) spangle the surface. 

Bed after bed of blooms nearby, a palette of tulips
(Tulipa) mingle with the lapis blue of Irises
(Iridaceae), pushing the boundaries
with narrow paths in between.
Monet’s garden pictured and painted
so many times that it looks familiar to our eyes,
a mix of pigment that we recognise.

Later the bees will come buzzing and busy
among the open flowers, their legs will be bushy
with pollen, as they fly back to the hive to perform
their own dream of transubstantation.
They see the world with compound eyes.

Jean O’Brien

Audition

She learns in stages that she is his type
cast as lover, partner maybe.
He woos her with square meals, little
songs and the hint of deft effleurage.

Her voice is just right: good tone quality
dark and low, like the hair.

Features fine and strong
eyes bright, soul old.

Hands long and elegant;
fingers busy
writing
their own scripts.

Maeve O’Sullivan

Chrysanthemum

Reluctant brass
the year’s first opening up
of glass
panes folding out
into sun.
Place a vase
on sill, fresh painted,
petals white
pink, lilac,
fan against light
and the blue
of a perfect June.

Peter Salisbury

Love Poem

Woman, don’t write me moons and light and rain,
birds and rivers; let us talk love’s language
all in signs, like this, and this, and this again.

Eye to eye, hands on hips, and with our lips
speak silently; let us talk love’s language
till we thirst, till the heady conversation dips

between us. No, don’t make notes, no writing white,
but sweat and lust in love’s language
like lovers everywhere. Enough, no more, it’s night.

Lorna Sherry

His Annual Diaries

My uncle, age 92, is three weeks dead;
in a line, someone has neatly laid
his diaries on his narrow bed.

In leather covers of brown, green, and red:
reminder notes, the things he did,
names of friends who died,

promises and decisions made
- a civil servant, retired, each bit
noted – was this how he dreamed it?

Christopher T. George

To A Son

I keep your grown face in mind
now when the lips tighten,
the feet do a buck n wing,
the clear eyes are steady.
You do see the point.

The year of divorce I was
class mother. Your fifth grade
picture sits on my bookcase.
The photographer snapped you
clowning for classmates
making fish faces with your mouth.

Saying ‘cheese’ never lightened your eyes.

Claire Curtin

Short story by Tom Noonan http://geocities.com/big_rudra/waylon06.html

Dear world

In 1997 members of the Dublin Writers Workshop, a community of writers who had been meeting at a variety of venues around Dublin since the late 1980s, set up a website to publish an occasional journal, Electric Acorn. The website (http://acorn.dublinwriters.org) also hosted a discussion forum where members posted work for feedback, discussed issues of interest and responded to creative writing exercises suggested by other forum members.

This blog aims at reviving the DWW online community but in a new, experimental form. I’d like to see if we could initiate and sustain an ongoing conversation about writing, with separate threads for a monthly Electric Acorn ezine that would offer a platform for excellent writing in a variety of genres , a workshop to post work in progress and get feedback and a place to talk about ideas and issues to do with creative writing in all genres.

We would also include links to community members’ blogs, websites and help to promote their new publications, workshops, readings etc etc.

That’s the idea, anyway.  Please keep an eye on developments, subscribe to the blog and keep coming back. This will only work with your help and participation.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Nessa O’Mahony

Moderator, DWW online