They say that time flies when you’re having fun, which means that I must have been having a lot of fun recently because the weeks have certainly flown by. I can hardly believe that it’s already 6 weeks since I last hosted Open Link Night.

So what has happened in the past 6 weeks? Back then I was telling you all about the opportunity that has come my way to begin a creative writing class at the Grassmarket Community Project in Edinburgh. Since then I have had the privilege of attending the official opening of the Project’s new facilities, which are astounding, and on Friday just past we had the first meeting of the creative writing group. Four people came along to that meeting, which was nice for the first one; not enough to be overwhelming, but not so few as to be discouraging. After we had introduced ourselves, we discussed how, as writers, we might demonstrate the Project’s core value of respect; respect for each other and respect for ourselves. Some of the ways that we agreed would contribute to that included both sharing our work with each other and paying attention to what others are sharing, and writing to the given prompts. For anyone interested, the prompt I gave was Behind the Red Door and in response to it I wrote my first piece of prose fiction in 30 years or so.

What does that have to do with dVerse? Well, it was being part of this community that gave me the confidence to believe that I might be the answer to the Project’s need of someone to lead their creative writing group. It was here at dVerse that I found a community of poets who read each other’s work, encouraged each other by commenting on what was good about what we had read and sometimes made suggestions about how the work might be improved. It was here at dVerse that I was able to see other writers providing prompts to stretch my own writing, and here that I had my first opportunity to give a prompt for other poets to respond to. So I have a lot of reasons to be thankful to Brian, Claudia and the rest of this wonderful, welcoming, international community of poets.

My name is Tony Maude, and it is my privilege to welcome you to this week’s edition of the poetic extravaganza that is the dVerse pub’s Open Link Night.

If you are new here, let me tell you how it works; for the regulars, here’s a handy reminder:

• Write a poem and post it to your webpage.
• Click on the Mr. Linky button below and enter your name and direct url/web address to your poem; one poem per person please.
• There you will also find the list of those participating this week. You might want to refresh this occasionally or check back in as there are people joining over the next 33 hours.
• If it’s your first time here, please leave a comment to say so. That makes it much easier for us to find you and encourage you by visiting your site.
• Read other poets that have linked. Let them know what you thought, how the poem moved you, what caught your attention etc. The not-so-secret formula to receiving more visits and comments on your blog is to read and comment on other people’s poems. Please don’t forget to return the favour of those who have visited and commented on your work.
• Encourage others to participate through social media, promote both your own work and others.
• Have fun meeting and engaging with your fellow poets.

Happy Tuesday everyone … smiles