Skogspoesi. Poems from a forest.

Last Thursday was a very special day for the children of Klass 5-6 in Kulltorpsskolan. They received their books, “Poems from a Forest: Skogspoesi”. The children wrote brief stories and poems based on the snails visiting the forest near their school in Kulltorp, and the book has been published by Kultivera.

The books were given to children in goodie bags at the end of their parents meeting last week, when they were able to tell their parents about the poetry writing project. The pupils and their parents were excited by the books and honoured to be part of the project. At Young Writers Lab we feel honoured to have such an enthusiastic teacher as Marianne (Majsan) Olsson encouraging her pupils to be creative and to enjoy writing so much.

Here is one poem, “Survival” by Hedda Jarlstam

" The rain smattered

against the ceiling.

The child was playing

in the waterpooles.

The clouds above us

were dark.

However, the leaves

are still green

in the darkness."

We hope that some of the children will be able to join us for our Young Writers day at the Fringe International Arts Festival in Tranås next month.

Sagolandet, where writing dreams come true.

Following my trip to Jönköping Region in April, it's great to hear that new groups for Young Writers Lab have started up. Elisabeth is running a group with members from Jönköping, Nässjö, Vetlanda and Tranås meeting on line. Joke has worked with Kulltorpskolan near Gnosjö and Kultivera has published their book of photographs and poems, "Skogsboken". More on this soon

I've met with my new group in Holavedsgymnasiet, Tranås, who are a group of five aesthetic course students. They are performing a production of Alice in Wonderland this month, and have named their group "Sagolandet". They are interested in responding to nature and we'll work on some poetry and short stories. My recent meeting with them was interesting as I video-called them from a remote Welsh island, and was able to talk to them about the landscape and wildlife there. We began writing short stories based upon treasure seeking in their favourite places.

Frogs tales and Fika in the forest.

After a moving day in Gnosjö, the following day we were entertained by pupils in Kulltorpsskolan, Kulltorp. We heard about their frog adventure stories, shared Fika in the forest behind the school, and made plans with their energetic teacher, Majsan, to write like crazy to get a booklet of stories published by Kultiver

a. Young Writers lab will be back to Kulltorp very soon.