Creative Writing Group

June and July brought us a bonanza of fantastic stories, scripts and poetry thanks to our wonderful contributors to the Madrid Review Creative Writing Group. Here are our highlights - remembering that the prompt published in the last issue was great first lines.

Charles Penty sent us three amazing, accomplished poems. Brought up in rural Staffordshire, Charles Penty is an international news agency journalist who has worked in Colombia, Brazil and Spain, as well as the UK. He was longlisted in the 2020 National Poetry Competition. Since 2005, he has lived with his family in Madrid where he works in the IESE Business School. Both Jayne and James loved all three of his poems, two of which will be in the November issue of The Madrid Review.

Lee Hutchings, a musician and former film student, now studying Creative Writing at Birkbeck University, pulled on our heartstrings with a story called Remembering Trevor which opened with a strong first line, “A figure in black stares at me in the bedroom mirror.” 

As with many of the entries this month, Lee’s story was a personal take on a universal theme - grief and loss. As we were reading, we wondered - when does a ‘memoir’ become a ‘story’? How much should a writer tell the absolute truth about what happened in their own personal experience? Is it OK to change what happened in real life, to build on it, alter it - or is that watering down the truth?

None of the three poems Canadian George Murray sent us shied away from dealing with big issues, especially in Autobiography of the Fall where the writing gives a feeling of Boethius's 'eternity contained in a moment'. George Murray is the widely published author of seven books of poetry, most recently, Problematica: New and Selected Poems, 1995 - 2020. He’s the former poetry editor for the Literary Review of Canada and has taught poetry at many schools, including New School University. He’s also lectured on Canadian poetry at Princeton, York University, Memorial University, and others. Check out his poems and tell us what you think.

Autobiography of the Fall

In a moment of pure fortune, 

the leaf let go of its branch above 

just as I walked below, 

feet trailing beastlike

through its society already in ruin; 

so, I was there to hear 

its parting sound, 

the resigned click, like the Devil 

plucking a plum, a release 

followed by a last dance, 

a feathered fall swishing by 

the outskirts of my eye, 

its yellow face and red veins 

reaching out in reckless beauty, 

a moment of perfect freedom, 

in vain, all noted in the space 

of two steps as I walked through 

the uncountable others 

underfoot; each banished leaf, 

unique but alike, distinguished now 

as those witnessed while passing 

through their brief expulsions

versus those fallen unseen, and so

gone before they hit the ground. 

Supernova

It can be said with near complete certainty 

that there is, somewhere in our sky, a star 

preparing to die; whether collapsing in, 

or expanding ever out, enveloping 

in its convective skin any bodies nearby, 

along with whatever life they might hide.

And if anything is still alive there, 

like or unlike me, it could right now be 

perceiving its own end; either in mute awe 

or with full, shrieking awareness. Here, 

things will undoubtedly one day be the same,

but for now it’s all about scale. At this point 

in space and time, I am honestly mostly 

worried about money, about children being 

executed overseas, about whether the weather

will one day force me to move inland, 

and if a stroke will explode in my brain before 

the sun gets a chance; all the gravity there is, 

drawing me in before spitting me back out.

Madrid-based screenwriter, copywriter and film-maker Georgia Bloo sent us a thought-provoking and interesting submission called  Coastlines: An Intimate Lesson in Geography and Geopolitical Affairs. As you can see if you read the PDF at the bottom of this text, there are some lovely lines and descriptions coupled with compelling topics and intersections, overall making a moving cross-cultural love story. We'd love to know what you think? Have a read and send us your comments.

Megan Lee, who lives in the Netherlands, submitted Your Voice or Mine? a heartfelt, pretty poem which describes a universal experience with delicacy and immediacy. We liked how Megan leaned into the prompt by placing us immediately in the moment and in the scene. We thought that perhaps beginning with the stronger second stanza might help the overall effect of the poem? But what do you all think?

Your voice or mine?

I woke up happy,
 the light spilled hope,
 into the quiet corners of my heart,
 where the lotus bloomed,
 with the gentle blessing,
 of a beautiful day.

French press,
 no sugar, no milk.
 Colombian black,
 warm and bitter,

tasted like sugar.

Sipping my coffee,
 me and my garden,
 poppies and daisies
 sang their silent symphony.

Barefoot,
 shoulders chilled,
 by the morning mist.
 my fingers brushed,
 the little angels.
 Under my touch, 

they balleted
 in the hush of rising dawn.

I closed my eyes,
feeling blessed,

by this taste of freedom, once again.
But then your call
drifted in, like,
fast and furious,
softly whispering,
“Sorry, today isn’t yours.”

Pacing back and forth,
 you flipped my page,
 to uncertainty.
 A single word,
 etched so deeply,
 it left no room,
 to be free.

Restless,
 you’ve made me so,

again and again.
 

You promised,
 to set me free,
 but the very next day,
 you said you missed me.

Running through this maze,
 begging for mercy,
 begging for freedom.
 Is this the end?

Do I stay,
 or do I leave? 

Your voice,
 or mine?

Shannon Kenny, an actor and voice artist from Durban, South Africa, sent us a story called The Speaker, which we both found fascinating. Telling the story of Portuguese immigrants in South Africa, and the mother’s fear of talking in public, which leads her daughter to become her ‘speaker’, it was both personal and universal.

Finally a visceral, tough and immediate script from Sofia Furio, an Argentinian artist and writer based in London. Look out for That’s Not My Problem if you ever see it pop up in the schedules - and don’t forget you read about it here first!

If you’d like to comment on any of the work presented here, make sure you are subscribed to the magazine and send your comments in an email to themadridreview@hotmail.com. Please make it clear whose work you are commentating on and also provide us with some proof of who you are.

Finally, if you want to join in with the Group, you need to be a subscriber - use the button on the website - and look out for the prompt in the next issue of the magazine (August 28th) and here on this page.

We'll have more feedback and your comments and work at the start of October.

Thanks for writing!

James & Jayne