The HOT Lapidus group have met on a regular basis in Scarborough since 2011. We currently meet four times a year and the core members of the group take turns in facilitating either a whole day’s session or share the facilitation for a half day’s session. In return for facilitation members pay half the fee for the workshop. Our core membership consists of 8 members and we travel from as far afield as West Yorkshire and Northumberland. We continue to meet in Scarborough as the venue suits us in ambience and in catering facilities and it is convenient for people to travel to. It is also very accessible for anyone with mobility issues and has proven to be a popular venue and we have enjoyed meeting there for the last few years. We all contribute to lunch and each participant is invited to bring food to share.

As part of a deliberate attempt to attract new participants we invited Geraldine Green to facilitate a session in September 2018. We hoped this attract new faces and stimulate the group regulars.

Review of meeting

12 of us met on a sunny Saturday in Scarborough to “write around the body” with Geraldine Green. After introductions and some housekeeping information, we embarked on a stimulating and a rollercoaster of a day in relation to prompts, responses and generous sharing. ALL of us shared during the day, even those new to the group, we wrote, reflected and fedback on our work.

Poems were used as prompts – this included work by Jane Hirshfield, Vicki Feaver, Lucille Clifton, Billy Collins, Brigit Pegee Kelly and Geraldine Connolly. Some close reading was followed by short writing exercises that encouraged us to respond to the work and draw on our own experiences. 

After 3 short warm up exercises we wrote for 20 minutes, broke for coffee and then returned for some sustained writing before lunch.

The afternoon was intense and emotional, responding to work by Anne Stevenson, etc, etc.

The final session of sharing was thoughtful and reflective, all of us given much to take home and think about in relation to how we relate to our body, our memories and how we share these safely and appeal to our imagined reader with our poems/prose.

It was a very inspiring day and we hope that our 5 guests will return to our regular meetings here at Scarborough.   Writing and well-being seems an urgent need now and many of us reflected on the positive impact that sustained writing practice makes in our lives.

We left just after 4 – energetic and thoughtful – ready to face the week ahead in a renewed and invigorated way. 

Conclusion

The idea of having an external facilitator has been, we feel, a successful venture – we have engaged with 5 new people and have introduced 4 people to the work of Lapidus International.

Work produced during the workshop was powerful and has inspired us to consider the idea of producing an anthology of our work – the HOT Lapidus writers are talented and sharing our work may well help others.