dECORUM NI
Title of Work: More Precious Than Diamonds
Arts Care Project Artist: Jason Parkes
Art Form: Writing
The writers here are members of Decorum NI which is an organisation that supports and empowers those security forces who served during the Troubles in Northern Ireland during the period of Op BANNER from 1969 – 2007 and their families by giving them a voice to ensure that a constituency of need which is otherwise silent can be heard.
It is astounding to think that we only met together on eight occasions. I feel we have got to know each other more than those few hours would suggest. I think that is in the nature of writing and sharing stories and poems. It is a brave thing to do and we are vulnerable when we share our work, especially when it is so very personal as thinking of what is most precious to us. As well as sharing stories about our lives and thinking about what is important in life in general we talked about early memories, life events-those precious diamond moments and the people who have been precious to us and what they mean to us here and now. Some of the group were already keen on writing but others weren’t sure but have other creative interests including painting and photography, nevertheless we discussed this years theme of Diamonds and decided that diamonds didn’t particularly mean a lot to us and that other things were much more precious, hence the title of our collection of writing “More Precious Than Diamonds”. All of us spoke and all of us listened, some of us wrote and some of what we wrote we are happy to share whilst other pieces will remain more personal. We used diamonds as a starting point for some writing then moved on from that to try different types of writing genre. Our work includes prose, poetry and narrative story writing-there is some fact and some fiction in all of that and we decided that all of those styles are creative. The pieces are all very individual but are connected in how they connect with us and create conversations between us. Many of the pieces started out as writing exercises or challenges-a list poem, a window poem, a piece looking at the world from a different perspective and others started through conversations with each other and with ourselves. Fair to say we often talked more than wrote and tried to put the world to rights at times as well. We were keen for these pieces to be broadly positive as there is enough darkness in the world but there are shadows lurking there and there is more personal work many of the participants have created not shared here which delves deeper. This project aimed for a fun, creative and safe space to try a few things out and to share some precious moments, precious memories of people, places and that which we can turn to, hold on to and to cherish. There is so much in life that is more precious than diamonds. It would be brilliant if some of this work inspired others to reflect on the people or the places or the moments that are precious to them. As an artist it has been a privilege to work with such a welcoming and inquiring, conversational and creative group of writers and I know this is just a small fragment of the work that they have made and will continue to make. The writing hasn’t ended-only the workshops and I look forward to continue reading more in the future.
Jason Parkes - Writer and Artist
Thank you so much to the participants from Decorum NI.
Debra, Pam, Heather, Hazel, Iris, Bill, Jane, Suzi, Jean, Bill and Lydia.Thank you for your courage in letting us share this collection of precious moments with everyone. Your creativity shines through and your words have reached us in laughter and in tears. Thank you for being such beautiful diamonds.