My Bristol

This morning, the Beginning Creative Writing group started to write poems. We have been focusing on short stories lately so it was an interesting challenge to try something different. We talked about poetry and thought about the difference between a poem and a story. To get us started, we each tried writing 'snapshot' poems - just a few lines focusing on a particular subject.

We each wrote these about where we live in Bristol and the places that are familiar to us. This subject was inspired by the Great Reading Adventure that is taking place in Bristol at the moment. A graphic novel called 'Bristol Stories', which tells the story of history of Bristol, is being given away for free all over the city to encourage everyone to read more (you can get a copy from the Arnolfini bookshop or see http://www.bristolreads.com. ) The writing group started thinking about different experiences of Bristol and we tried writing poems capturing a sense of where we live.

We each wrote three short poems and then each developed one of these into a longer poem. We wanted to share with you poems by Daniel and Alex.

My Family by Daniel Bryan

They are brown, black and white
and English and Jamacian.
They are so funny.

Postbox by Daniel Bryan

Red
Down at the end of my road.
There are letters in it.

My Friends by Daniel Bryan

Blonde, brown and pink.
They help me alot.
They are so friendly to me.

Less is More by Alex Kryiacou

Local ghetto
Grey skies. Police sirens
Walking, talking
Patois. Fatwah. The lingo

Changing faces
Less yardies
More trendies
Conflict brewing
Night time, don't go there

Local? Are you?
Don't think so
Odd vibe, Hartcliffe
On bus
To ghetto.

Less is more
Attention from you
More is less
Attention from you

Dark walls, closing
Room spinning, on downwards
No connection
With the people you know

Stop search
Speed chase
Handcuffs
Get social

Grey walls, grey sky
Gray streets
Black people

Changing faces
Less cops
More bibles

Less is more
Attention from you
More is less
Attention from you

Closing pubs down
Drugs bust
That's progress!

Local! Am I?
Don't know