never knowingly without a pen
During the first lockdown, in the spring, I went through a phase of posting a blog every day, using the hashtag Corona Diary (when I remembered). I think I started off with gusto and petered out a bit towards the end. We've just entered our third national lockdown in the UK and I don't intend… Continue reading Lockdown, Series Three
It's not obligatory to write an end of year post, but it would feel strange to me not to pass comment on this strangest of years. My 2020 began with a week in the English Lake District, near Brotherswater, staying at Thomas Grove House and Cottage in Hartsop. I was with Jane Commane, publisher and… Continue reading End of *That* Year
During lockdown, I started a new Instagram account called andothermakings where I've posted some of my visual poems, experiments with collage and assemblage, and various dabblings with word and image. Last week, I was provoked to add new pieces to the account, mainly because I didn't know how else to express my exasperation with the… Continue reading Collages of Exasperation
This week I wore my mask every time I went into a shop or a shopping mall, which is more frequently than I had been doing. Once Boris Johnson announced that face coverings will become compulsory inside shops in England from July 24 (or possibly July 23? I'm not sure of the date) I noticed… Continue reading What the real world is
I'm writing this post while sitting on a bench by the side of the canal in Bradford-on-Avon. I'm writing in a small sparkly notebook and I'll type up these notes later when I return home. It's nearly 3pm on Friday, 3rd July, 2020. I left home just after 2pm to catch the train here, just… Continue reading With lockdown hair and a face mask, I rejoin the world
A small rambling post about what I'm up to at the moment, what's happening out here in my little corner of the West Wiltshire town that's been my home for the past 17 years, and what's new since my first post about living through the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK. News in the garden: our… Continue reading Corona Diary: Half year, middle of the week catch-up
I've written about my sequence 'Once Upon a Lockdown' before but this is the first time I've been able to post all nine pieces together. I began this writing as a sequence of diary entries/prose poems/poems and then reworked each section into a collage using natural materials from my garden, photos from my camera roll… Continue reading Sequence of nine prose poems/collages
I wrote a hybrid piece called 'Once Upon a Lockdown' - part poem/prose/diary - and submitted it to The Great Margin with thanks to a small commission from Paper Nations - which I've mentioned before. 'Once Upon a Lockdown' starts in March, when Boris Johnson announced there was going to be a lockdown, and roses… Continue reading Once Upon a Lockdown Rose: collage work and hybrid writing
Whichever way you look at it, lockdown is coming to an end in England, and gradually elsewhere in the UK, too. Non-essential shops are open, churches are open for quiet prayer, public transport is running, roads are much, much busier, businesses are opening up although everyone is expected to keep two metres apart and wear… Continue reading Once upon a lockdown
This is the first creative piece I've made for my Time to Write commission from Paper Nations which I wrote about in a previous post. Paper Nations have asked for creative responses to 'isolation'. I've used text from The Guardian newspaper and found natural materials from my garden. I hope the text of the… Continue reading I have forgotten your fingertips
Josephine Corcoran 