Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

For this session our text was the short story Girl by Jamaica Kincaid, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: “Write a set of directions.”

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!

Please join us for our next session Wednesday July 7th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

Girl by Jamaica Kincaid

Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don’t walk bare-head in the hot sun; cook pumpkin fritters in very hot sweet oil; soak your little cloths right after you take them off; when buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn’t have gum in it, because that way it won’t hold up well after a wash; soak salt fish overnight before you cook it; is it true that you sing benna in Sunday school?; always eat your food in such a way that it won’t turn someone else’s stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming; don’t sing benna in Sunday school; you mustn’t speak to wharf-rat boys, not even to give directions; don’t eat fruits on the street—flies will follow you; but I don’t sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school; this is how to sew on a button; this is how to make a buttonhole for the button you have just sewed on; this is how to hem a dress when you see the hem coming down and so to prevent yourself from looking like the slut I know you are so bent on becoming; this is how you iron your father’s khaki shirt so that it doesn’t have a crease; this is how you iron your father’s khaki pants so that they don’t have a crease; this is how you grow okra—far from the house, because okra tree harbors red ants; when you are growing dasheen, make sure it gets plenty of water or else it makes your throat itch when you are eating it; this is how you sweep a corner; this is how you sweep a whole house; this is how you sweep a yard; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely; this is how you set a table for tea; this is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how you set a table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well, and this way they won’t recognize immediately the slut I have warned you against becoming; be sure to wash every day, even if it is with your own spit; don’t squat down to play marbles—you are not a boy, you know; don’t pick people’s flowers—you might catch something; don’t throw stones at blackbirds, because it might not be a blackbird at all; this is how to make a bread pudding; this is how to make doukona; this is how to make pepper pot; this is how to make a good medicine for a cold; this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child; this is how to catch a fish; this is how to throw back a fish you don’t like, and that way something bad won’t fall on you; this is how to bully a man; this is how a man bullies you; this is how to love a man, and if this doesn’t work there are other ways, and if they don’t work don’t feel too bad about giving up; this is how to spit up in the air if you feel like it, and this is how to move quick so that it doesn’t fall on you; this is how to make ends meet; always squeeze bread to make sure it’s fresh; but what if the baker won’t let me feel the bread?; you mean to say that after all you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

For this session we examined the painting Cumulative Losses by Jennifer Packer, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: “Write about setting things in motion.”

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!

Please join us for our next session Wednesday June 30th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

For this session we examined the painting Pink Dish and Green Leaves by Georgia O’Keeffe, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: “Write about inside vs. outside.”

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!

Please join us for our next session Monday June 28th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

For this session our text was an excerpt from On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: “Write about giving a name.”

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!

Please join us for our next session Wednesday June 23rd at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

Ocean Vuong, On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous (p. 20)

Before I was Little Dog, I had another name—the name I was born with. One October afternoon in a banana-thatched hut outside Saigon, on the same rice paddy you grew up on, I became your son. As Lan told it, a local shaman and his two helpers rushed in, wrapped me, still sticky with birth, in a white cloth, and raced to the nearby river, where I was bathed under veils of smoke and sage.

          Screaming, ash smudged across my forehead, I was placed in my father’s arms and the shaman whispered the name he had given me. It means Patriotic Leader of the Nation, the shaman explained. Having been hired by my father, and noticing my old man’s gruffness, the way he puffed out his chest to widen his 5ft.-2in frame as he walked, speaking with gestures that resembled blows, the shaman picked a name, I imagine, that would satisfy the man who paid him. And he was right. My father beamed, Lan said, lifting me over his head at the hut’s threshold. “My son will be the leader of Vietnam,” he shouted. But in two years, Vietnam—which, thirteen years after the war and still in shambles—would grow so dire that we would flee the very ground he stood on, the soil where, a few feet, away, your blood had made a dark circle between your legs, turning the dirt there into fresh mud—and I was alive.

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

In today’s session, we gathered from across the globe to view Lady Gaga’s short film “911.” After spending about 5 minutes viewing the music video together, we took a few moments to silently review the song’s lyrics and collect our thoughts. THen, we began our close reading discussion with the question, “What is our entry point? How do we find our way in?”

One participant started our discussion by noting how the vivid scenes and colors of the video created a chaos that reflects the traffic accident revealed at the end of the video. We discussed the setting, colors, and costumes that created what some described as a dream, others a nightmare. As we looked closely at the lyrics, we found that perhaps another description of the experience would be one of hallucination or the visual experience of a psychotic breakdown, echoed in the lyrics “my mind takes me to manic places.” Moreover, we reflected on the lyrics continual reference to medication as an escape from the troubles of reality.

We we also struck by the symbolism of the images and objects in the dream state portion of the video, and how they represented parallel images and objects in the scene of the accident: the sand dunes of the LG advertisement create the desert scene of the dream, complete with a dark horseman; the EMS first responders use reflective mirrors in place of pen lights; Lady Gaga’s ankle bracelet serves as her tourniquet.

The piece was moving at both a visual and auditory level, and was a representation of Mental Health, its impact, and the non-linearity of experience, memory and trauma. The imprint of trauma on the brain and its impact to response and behavior. A great way to understand illness in context. 

After a lively discussion, we moved on to our writing prompt: “Draw or describe (or sing!) the beautiful places you keep yourself.” After writing for 4 minutes, we began to share our reflections. One participant offered us a natural garden scene where she could “befriend butterflies” and “eat fragrance.” She held onto the blades, even as “the black suit of emotions” poured like a crushing waterfall. Another participant described a summer hike, a path where a tree “canopy shields me from the world.” She reflected on the energy in the air and the beauty of the flowers. Here, she wrote, is “a place I return to often. A place of respite. A place to rededicate myself to living.” Finally, another participant invited, “come walk with me on the beach.” We reflected on sharing a special place with others, and how we can leave ourselves there. “Pieces of us are still scattered on the shore, among the shells and the starfish.” In these beautiful places, we all found respite.

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!

Please join us for our next session Monday June 21st at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

Our text for this session was the poem “the death of fred clifton” by Lucille Clifton, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: “Write about a moment of clarity.”

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!

Please join us for our next session Friday June 18th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

the death of fred Clifton

11/10/84
age 49

i seemed to be drawn
to the center of myself
leaving the edges of me
in the hands of my wife
and i saw with the most amazing
clarity
so that i had not eyes but
sight,
and, rising and turning,
through my skin,
there was all around not the
shapes of things
but oh, at last, the things
themselves.



Lucille Clifton
Blessing the Boats: New and Selected Poems, 1988-2000

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

Our text for this session was the poem “Spring” by Maya C. Popa, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: “Write about time passing.”

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!

Please join us for our next session Monday June 14th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

"Spring" by Maya C. Popa


Time persists, yes, I can see there are new branches.

The grass, first in a line of transformations,
seemingly risen overnight.

Color is pouring back into the hours,
or forgiveness, whatever the case may be.

With one decisive tug at the earth, the robin’s drawn forth
a shimmering worm,

with such precision, it is almost a cruel pleasure.

This, the nightmare we dreamed but did not wake from.

Time is passing, I concede. A squirrel leaps
from one branch to another.

A hawk studies the field at dusk.

The park announces the season over and over
to no one,

and the silence cranes to listen.

Terraces of light now that the day is longer.

When joy comes, will I be ready, I wonder.

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

Our text for this session was the poem “Another Night at Sea Level” by Meg Day, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: “Write about a time you welcomed an adventure.”

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!

Please join us for our next session Saturday June 12th at 11am EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

“Another Night at Sea Level” by Meg Day


On the third day, I wrote to you
about the sky, its elastic way
of stretching so ocean-wide
that the only way to name it
was to compare it to Montana’s.
Lately, the sky is a ceiling
I wake to: broad & blank
& stubborn, stiff at the edges
like a fever cloth wrung out
& gone cold in the night, damp
with the wicking of latent ache.
But tonight I was walking
home along the coastline
& caught the huge moon
in my throat. There’s a man
somewhere on the planet
who has been to that moon,
who has stepped out of that sky,
& will never sleep the same
because of it. Will always be
sad or feel small, or wonder
how it is a person can be
a person, if being a person
is worrying about things;
whose eyes cannot see
what things are, but only
the slightness of them.
I think of writing to you
in this way—welcoming
the adventure of it—
& of being wrecked
proper, of being ruined.

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

Today our session had 18 participants from across the globe and included two new attendees to the Narrative Medicine virtual workshop sessions. We introduced the painting “School of Beauty, School of Culture” by Kerry James Marshall for 5 minutes of “close reading”. Participants were invited to first observe and then to take down some notes about what they were experiencing. The first discussion question asked, “As we enter this painting, where are we and what’s going on here?” 

One participant said it was a place that celebrates the beauty of hair – its natural texture and color, which recalled government policies that seek to limit or protect the freedom of expression. There is a sense of community and enjoyment in the pursuit of this expression of confident beauty, and the painting sparks feelings of joy and community. Additional comments observed the festive colors and reflective light, evoking a party atmosphere with dancing. Others observed a portrait of Rosa Parks on the wall, as well as another poster that might be subverting the idea of what beauty is due to its exaggerated features. 

A question arose about an object in the center lower half of the painting that looked like a bird, a spill of yellow color, oddly shaped and undefined. Someone thought it might be a blanket, perhaps dropped by one of the two children in the foreground, who are interacting with it. Or could it be a symbol of marketed beauty in the form of a “princess blanket” depicting a blonde haired, white-skinned fairytale girl? Or was it, in fact, a reflected image on the window of a white female outside on the sidewalk looking in and taking a photograph of the woman posing near the children? A flash bulb is reflected in an interior, background mirror. Another comment referenced the famous Holbein painting with a skull floating in the same foreground area that can be discerned if you were to tilt the painting at an angle; could this be a blond, women’s visage haunting this space?  These observations suggested a more complicated, multi-layered story being portrayed. The sense of the interior community versus the exterior voyeuristic gaze of the observer was a provocative place to end our discussion.

Additionally, here is an annotated resource for the painting that illuminates many aspects of the painting.

Our writing prompt today was “write about the art of finding beauty”. Participants began sharing their writing, which focused on such themes as living up to beauty standards and questioning who sets them. We discussed finding beauty in ourselves, finally feeling like we are “enough” after being our own worst critics. One participant noted that beauty is an “introspective assignment” and a task we must all undertake for ourselves. Another participant reflected on an experience of finding beauty in a Japanese garden, where the quiet, calming beauty of the space revealed itself “like a haiku poem”. Finally, another participant reminded us that, if we look for it, beauty can be found all around us — “I promise.”

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!

Please join us for our next session Thursday June 10th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.