WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT by Liz Manning

 

I’ve been working on a new venture – an internship to write and present a short series of programmes for a local radio station. The project we came up with is The Poetry Prescription, where we read  and discuss poems to give people a lift and take them out of themselves. A sort of cross between Frank Skinner’s Poetry Podcast and the Rabbit Hole Detectives.

We’ve had to write the scripts and record the shows, as well as promos. It’s been fun researching the poets and stories behind our choices, discovering local links, quirky lives, and unexpected uses of the poems in later years.

Do tune in to see how we got on.*

Selecting poems has not been straightforward though, especially the requests for our last show. It’s the small matter of copyright. Not (generally) a problem if the poet has been dead for over 70 years but we’ve needed to seek permission for anything else.

In some cases, we have got held up being passed from one person to another within publishers. But in others, I’ve been blown away by some remarkably generous responses. A small press sorting out permission from a major Irish poet and sending us lots of information about their set up. A well known poet not only giving permission but recording a reading the poem in her distinct dialect and accent.

I know we are doing the poets a favour by publicising their work in a small way, but the generosity and kindness in replies has been such an encouragement. And we all need encouragement.

I think writers, specifically Christian writers, are well equipped to give encouragement. I know I have been on the receiving end of such from so many here in ACW, whether it’s in local group discussions, one to one chats at the annual conference, or comments on blog posts. Someone saying that something I’ve written resonated with them or that they can’t wait to hear how I get on with my creative writing course, gives me courage to keep going.

Recently I realised I’ve been misreading that famous passage in Hebrews 12 about persevering in running the race set before us. Instead of ‘cloud’, I thought it said we are surrounded by a ‘crowd of witnesses’. I’ve pictured being at the London Paralympics cheering on the competitors, or the excitement of seeing my son cross the finish line of the Reading Half Marathon in the Madjeski Stadium. Or in football, how fans are referred to as the twelfth member of the team.

Maybe my misreading isn’t so wrong. We need supporters, cheerleaders, encouragers to keep going with our writing, whether we’re at a finishing line launching a book or slogging away and hitting the proverbial wall.

In 2013, Abel Mutai of Kenya, stopped 10 metres before the finish of a cross country race in Spain, thinking he had already crossed the line. In second place, Ivan Fernandez Anaya could have snatched victory thanks to the Kenyan’s confusion. But he didn’t. Instead, he slowed down and guided Mutai to the win.

Sometimes our supporters are on the track with us. And they know, perhaps more than most, exactly how hard we’re working to make our writing the best.

Paul, writing to the Christians in Rome, urges them to use the gifts they have been given, including that of encouragement.  And how is encouragement given? Frequently through words. So, as Christian writers, let’s use our gift of words not only for our own projects but to keep cheering each other on.

(* The Poetry Prescription will be on CHBN Radio on Tuesday 25th, Wednesday 26th, and Thursday 27th July 10-11pm. In the Truro area, tune in to 100.8FM. Otherwise, you can listen to CHBN online at https://www.chbnradio.org/on-air/how-listen/online , on the CHBN radio app, or through your Smart Speaker.)

Liz Manning lives in Cornwall and is doing a Creative Writing MA at Plymouth University, where she’s exploring fiction, poetry, and dramatic writing possibilities. She’s currently working on her dissertation, a visual poetry collection, which explores how faith, hope and love sustained her through difficult times.

She blogs regularly at https://thestufflifeismadeofblog.wordpress.com/