Listening
Working from home for most of the year, I don’t have a daily commute, but my day-job is managing a touring opera company. Since May, I have travelled around 10,000 miles up and down the country, mostly by train – one out-and-back visit to Cornwall racked up 26 hours on a train in a 48-hour period.
The train has been a mode of transport, a desk, a seat, a bed, a frustration… But along the way, I have experienced it in different ways.
If I’m sitting, I’m probably locked to a lapop-screen (as now…). But if I’m standing, I’ve been delving into audiobooks – Robert Harris, Robert Graves, Pat Baker, and anything (from myths to boarding schools to child wizards) read by Stephen Fry. And occassionally (just occassionally), I’ve been doing nothing at all.
Standing, eyes closed, listening; or watching others and the world.
The Invitation
Take one moment of travelling in October – it could be a commute, a school run, or your journey home from this year’s Wordstock (warmed by the weight of well-wrought words). But as you go to switch on whatever personal bubble you were about to create: don’t. Instead… Just listen.
And – without any pressure and only if you feel inspired to – when you get home tell me what happened, how it felt, and what you saw/heard/felt.
It could be a poem, a sentence, or a few paragraphs. Just send your scribblings to max@whiteweavearts.co.uk by Saturday 24 October.
I’ll probably read them from a train…
– Max Parfitt