Wendy explained that our theme today was Hope to tie in with Book Week Scotland and the Scottish Book Trust free publication Hope, which is available from libraries around Scotland. The stories and poems it contains have been written by the people of Scotland.
Hope is something we all badly need at a time of climate change and social and political uncertainty and Wendy started by reading quotes by Rebecca Solnit, Emily Dickinson (“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without words that never stops at all”) and Barbara Kingsolver.
In the first half we read from Hope starting with Wendy with one of the 50 word non fiction pieces by Anne Black.
Before I read Ribbons and New Socks by Sheena Mason, telling of the excitement and anticipation at the annual Gala Day in her Central Belt town in the 50s, I explained that it triggered the memory of my mother telling of a similar event which took place annually in her small mining community in Somerset during her childhood just after the 1st World War. Every year she looked forward to it and to the new ribbons bought from the visiting pedlar.
We talked of our memories of childhood and Betty told us that her grandson had given her a notebook entitled Grandma’s Memories so she would write about them. Each page was headed with a question as a prompt for writing, for example “What games did you play?” which brought back memories and made it easy for her to write about her childhood.
I also read A Wee Pocket of Joy by Rosemary Henderson which told of a peaceful hour spent in Princes Street Gardens in the middle of a busy day.
After the break we read poems from The Other Side of Hope: journeys in refugee and immigrant literature published in 2023. We were moved by the poems Tomato by Davina Fogel’ I See You by Priscilla Okoye, Sunshine by young people attending Croydon Young Roots and Recipe for Trust by young people attending Brent Young Roots.
We finished with poems from the website Poems for Hope and the City – Welcome to Hope by Salena Godden, Light by Louisa Adjoa Parker and Kitchen by Davina Quinlivan. Saadia shared with us her memory of visiting the beautiful Shalimar Gardens in Pakistan (which were mentioned in one of the poems), which she described to us so beautifully.
Our final Story Cafe of 2024 is on Thursday 12th December. A varied programme for 2025 is already being planned with the first on Thursday 30th January so keep an eye on our website for further details.
