Holly Stoppit Workshops' Poet In Residence strikes again!

A few years ago, I sent my wonderful Radministrator, Beccy Golding on an Arvon poetry retreat in the North of England. There was a caveat to my offer: when she returned, Beccy would take the role of Holly Stoppit Workshops' official Poet In Residence, capturing the essence of my work in poetry. She came back fizzing with excitement for words and rhythm and has been penning poems to document my workshops ever since. 

Earlier this year, Beccy received a Developing Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England to focus on her poetry practice. As part of her process, she called on my Creative Consultancy services, to support her with developing her performance skills to prepare for live poetry readings.

We met for two glorious afternoons in a roundhouse in South Bristol and Beccy wrote a poem to capture our time together. You can hear her tell it on youtube or read the text below.

Here's the vid of the poem on youtube:

Creative Consultancy with Holly Stoppit

-By Beccy Golding

the first day
it was raining
and we found a round house
made of straw bales and
clothes sticking to us
we made hot tea and we danced

the second time was sunshine
hot chocolate from a flask
we moved and talked, connected
explored the spaces
and from your head you made a plan

you helped me
prepare to be a poet
standing in a room
letting the words out of my mouth,
you helped me
find a job for my critic
leaning on the door jamb
at the back
arms crossed across his chest
keeping an eye out
spotting cliches
he is very good at that
- ten out of ten in fact,
you helped me
write a list
of how I would prepare
the things to do
to be ready
remember I had permission
to step into my being
and that people there would listen

I wanted to tell you
I remembered
what we were reminded of
in the round house
when we danced,
and lying on our backs in the long grass
in the sunshine
whispering words into the air
you listened
wrapped in your scarf,
and face to face in the centre
bulls eye of the room
I told you what success would look like
and you wrote it down,
and as I played to your witness
told you loudly, wrote it on the whiteboard
that a part of me says
I am flourishing in yesness

I wanted to tell you
there was a moment when the poems
were all running
my voice was running
the audience banter
and the eye contact
adrenaline  -  running
just before the last poem
about the rabbit and the dog
and the race they are running
the chase they are making
I noticed I was bounding
high and delicious and smooth
exciting, teeth chattering
but fast, I was sprinting
and I noticed
we all noticed
all those voices you helped me find
the critic, writer, social worker Stephanie
good girl, overwhelm and The One Who Knows
we all noticed
and we stopped
we found a moment of nothing
we stopped and
..
..
we breathed
..
..
just one slow breath in and out
before the last lap
I wanted to tell you that

You can see more of Beccy's beautiful, insightful poems about what happens in my workshops here.

You can find Beccy on instagram here:  https://www.instagram.com/fridayispoetsday/ 

and here: https://www.instagram.com/gnidlogeeb/

Find Beccy on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BeccyGolding/

Beccy's website: beccygolding.co.uk

If you're interested in making use of my Creative Consultancy services, I will be opening up for new clients in 2022. I work both online and in real life, supporting artists, facilitators, directors and therapists in a variety of ways. 

My recent consultancies range from ongoing support, meeting for an hour or two a month, to spending three full days in rehearsal rooms, facilitating creative process and/or mentoring facilitators. Check out my services pages for more info or send me an email at holly@hollystoppit.comto find out what I could do for you.