By Linda Donaldson
Five Writers Guild members who attended our August meeting brought selections to share.
Jane Bleam added to her student nursing stories with a delightful story, The Inquisitive Five Year Old, about listening carefully to understand what a child really means when she speaks. Listeners wanted more details of the patient and the hospital. One suggested reading the story aloud after writing to catch awkward spots.
The next selections, two poems by Betty Esris, were both unique and thought-provoking. In her first poem, Headline, August 2, 2011: Central Park Zoo Peacock Flies the Coop, the beautiful bird attracts observers who stop to click pictures. The narrator pictures the bird flying home to the Middle East, stopping in the Horn of Africa on the way and being wistfully witnessed by a mother on a roadside during the stillbirth of a her child. Many commented on that stark contrast of beauty with suffering.
Betty’s second poem Fastback 1967 follows the story of a young man’s love for his first car and how his memory of it serves as a brief respite during a battle in Vietnam. The car as a symbol of freedom is artfully expressed.
On the transportation theme, John McCabe brought us a portion of a longer story, Biking the West Coast of Oregon, about a man claiming a vintage motorcycle in Portland left for him by a old friend for a drive down the Coast to visit him. This evocative trip down memory lane brings him up against recollections of his past relationship with a girl long ago. Listeners had a lot to say about motorcycles and how they define eras.
Ron Price shared Thirty Fingers, Thirty Toes about the birth of triplet granddaughters. Ron describes first the joy, then the gravity of not weeks, but months of care in the NICU, learning their routine and sharing contact with these tiny treasures. After his daughter was released, the hospital provided cameras in the incubator room so each child could be individually watched on any computer screen 24/7. Ron tells what that miracle was like from a grandfather’s point of view. A well-written story that would fit many markets.
Daphne Freise, whose career as a flight attendant traveling worldwide included several years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, shared her short story The Chai Wallah. Praised for its evocative language with lots of descriptive detail, Daphne’s story about a man with expired papers who is encountered by authorities in a public market, parallels modern-day conflicts between illegal immigrants and regulations that favor employers who exploit foreign workers. We look forward to more stories!
Our monthly Writers Guild meetings (the third Sunday afternoons from March to October) are where we share and critique our writing work-in-progress. In a friendly atmosphere, we encourage, support, and challenge writers to improve whether they are experienced writers or beginners.
Join us on Sunday, September 15th from 1pm to 3pm in the Pearl S. Buck International Cultural Center (Red Barn), 520 Dublin Road, Perkasie, PA 18944.
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Pearl S. Buck Writing Center 