Walking with The Waste Land

Walk 6 - April 13th - 

“Walking......a way to draw out the afterglow of the ‘already gone’ “

(Robert Macfarlane, from Walking in Sebald's footsteps, in "Waterlog")

Thank you to those of you who were able to take part in the walk. We were lucky with the weather and as always the plan evolved and the conversation led us as we walked! 

My lasting impression of this walk was the sense of loss which runs throughout The Waste Land. Life's futility and despair as represented by the names of all those people from Margate who lost their lives in WW1 and subsequent wars ,including the Falklands, seemed very present in that space at the War Memorial.  Eliot's despair of modern society found its voice in a  few empty whisky bottles, bits of rubbish on the memorial and the site's legacy of a bombed church knocked down and replaced by a car park.

"You! hypocrite lecteur - mon sembable, - mon frere!"

(1. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD)

Hope you can make it to the next walk, which is part of the Chelsea Fringe, on May 25th. More details to follow.

If you'd  like more details about this walk or to be on the mailing list for future walks please contact me elspethpenfold@yahoo.co.uk

For more about the walking group: http://wasteland.onsocialengine.com/categories/23679/walking-group

For more about me and my work please visit my website, now at: www.elspeth-billie-penfold.com

Walk 6 - Walking with The Waste Land

Walking with The Waste Land,

Wednesday April 13th, 

Meet at the Nayland Rock Shelter 2pm.

"April is the cruellest month,breeding
 
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain."


 I'd like to link this walk to the theme of commemoration and war. Both the bombing in Belgium and then Pakistan were events that  brought TS Eliot's reflections on death, waste and loss into the present. I also read an article about migration "The long walk to nowhere..." which made me reflect on how the act of walking takes on a different meaning. 

 April is indeed a strange month, with the promise of sunny days and yet still a winter chill  in the air and cold showers. It seems to embody hope and loss as is so eloquently put in the quote from  T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land.

If you'd  like more details about this walk or to be on the mailing list for future walks please contact me elspethpenfold@yahoo.co.uk

For more about the walking group: http://wasteland.onsocialengine.com/categories/23679/walking-group

For more about me and my work please visit my website, now at: www.elspeth-billie-penfold.com