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Giving Sorrow Words

23 October 2020

Blog

Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak
whispers the o’er fraught heart and bids it break.

Shakespeare, Macbeth

Since the onset of the Covid pandemic, nearly everyone has had to deal with grief of one variety or another, and if not their, then the grief of others. That the pandemic follows on the heels of other ongoing meltdowns, from economic to environment, has only made bearing these grieds more difficult. Personal and collective losses have been multiplying: loss of habitat for so many of our fellow beings with whom we share our planet earth, loss of freedom to travel to meet friends and family, fires everywhere, ice melting, oceans rising, plants and animals and insects endangered or becoming extinct.

We need to grieve the past, we need to grieve what’s happening now, and we need to grieve the future.  As the doctor and poet William Carlos Williams said:

That’s the way writing often starts, a disaster or a catastrophe of some sort, as happened to me… And I think that’s the basis for my continued interest in writing, because by writing I rescue myself under all sorts of conditions, whatever it may be that has upset me, then I can write and it relieves the feeling of distress.

Before Williams, on 5 April 1944, Anne Frank wrote, ‘I can shake off everything if I write.  My sorrows disappear.  My courage is reborn.’

More recently clinical research by James Pennebaker and others shows that writing about painful experiences can enhance immune response, reduce recovery time and promote physical, psychological and social well-being. Ignoring, turning a blind eye, numbing with distractions, doesn’t help; grief doesn’t go away – even though it is understandable to want to ignore what’s difficult to express. The difficulties can, however, churn away in our subconscious causing havoc with our wellbeing. Writing our grief brings relief, respite, even pleasure.

Grief Educator Ted Bowman says, ‘If it’s unmentionable, it is unmanageable.’

With that in mind, Lapidus Scotland in association with the Scottish Poetry Library is running Giving Sorrow Words: Creative Words for Health & Wellbeing, a series of three short writing sessions led by Lapidus Scotland facilitators Valerie Gillies, the former Edinburgh Makar, and Larry Butler.

Here’s the information you need if you’re interested in taking part in these workshop.

Series 1: Wednesdays 11, 18, 25 November, 3–3.45pm with Valerie Gillies
Book a place on the workshop here.

Series 2: Saturdays 14, 21 and 28 November, 5.15–6.00pm with Larry Butler
Book a place on the workshop here.

Numbers are limited, and advance booking is essential.

As numbers are limited, we ask that you book for one or other of the series but not both.

Please book only if you are able to attend all three sessions in the series.

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