Live Virtual Group Session: 6pm EST February 22nd 2021

8 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

Our text for this session was “The Mississippi River Empties Into the Gulf” by Lucille Clifton, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about standing on the edge.“

More details on this session will be posted, so check back!

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (“Leave a Reply”), to keep the conversation going here, bearing in mind that the blog of course is a public space where confidentiality is not assured.

Also, we would love to learn more about your experience of these sessions, so if you’re able, please take the time to fill out a follow-up survey of one to two quick questions!

Take the Survey!

Please join us for our next session Wednesday February 24th at 12pm EST, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

The Mississippi River Empties Into The Gulf 
and the gulf enters the sea and so forth,
 none of them emptying anything,
 all of them carrying yesterday
 forever on their white tipped backs,
 all of them dragging forward tomorrow.
 it is the great circulation
 of the earth's body, like the blood
 of the gods, this river in which the past
 is always flowing. every water
 is the same water coming round.
 everyday someone is standing on the edge
 of this river, staring into time,
 whispering mistakenly:
 only here. only now. 

-Lucille Clifton

8 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 6pm EST February 22nd 2021”

  1. Patricia D.

    Standing on the edge

    What edge?
    Between now and then?
    here and there?
    Or the space
    between two mountains
    where the river flows?
    Simply watching rather than
    than risk stepping out
    towards tomorrow
    and where that will take us.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • al3793

      Patricia, I am sorry I had to help on of the residents and missed your reading. The similarities between our pieces are intriguing. Yet I love your speaker’s questions and how that voice challenges the reader. Our pieces are connect by space, mountains, moving water and journeys. Andre

      Like

      Reply
  2. michele348

    About standing on the edge~~~

    Life flows but yet stands still.
    Time is suspended in moments,
    yesterday similar to today,
    tomorrow will follow its predecessor.

    Memories jumbled together,
    the past fusing with the present.
    Blurred in my gray matter.
    Experiences of life are dust-covered in the corner of my mind,
    waiting for freedom.

    I speak softly to myself.
    Life will change,
    it will bring hope,
    it will become energized.

    And so I stand here on the edge,
    holding my breath,
    looking upward and wishing upon the stars in the night-time sky.
    Anticipation, longing fills my thoughts and my spirit.
    I exhale slowly and listen to my heart beating within me.

    Like

    Reply
    • al3793

      Michele,
      Standing on the Edge the speaker it is quiet enough to hear one’s breath and it is in those quiet places that the most important voices can be heard. I like the image of dust covered experiences stashed in the corners of the mind and the voice of hope found in your narrative. Thank you. Andre

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  3. al3793

    Standing on the Edge

    We stood on what seemed the edge of the world
    getting there demanded so much breath and
    the vista took all of our breath as
    the jagged white tipped tundra
    traversed before us and nearly surrounded us
    ready to catch us if we fell…
    there was nowhere to fall.

    A high mountain meadow
    fed by alonge waterfalls
    that roared in the distance above
    barely heard over the sound
    of the warm breeze passing by,
    carpeted the valley below with
    tans, yellows, whites and grays and greens –
    high desert country that
    only nature’s palette could
    make so beautiful.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. Patricia D.

    Andre, The space between us seems not to matter as we hear/read each others’ pieces. Your mountains must be near mine, where ever that may be. Thank you for being present each week and opening your heart.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Dinah Ryan

      Patricia, Michele, and Andre–listening to and reading your writing, I’m brought back to the connected bodies of water in Clifton’s poem, the way they’re all part of a multifaceted body. And I”m also returned to the sense of connectedness between all beings that came up in our discussion of the poem. Thank you all for the vistas and the sense of possibilities in your writing.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.