Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT July 26th 2021

12 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

Our text for this session was the poem Dead Stars by Ada Limón, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: “Write/list demands to launch into the sky.”

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

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

Dead Stars by Ada Limón

Out here, there’s a bowing even the trees are doing.
                 Winter’s icy hand at the back of all of us.
Black bark, slick yellow leaves, a kind of stillness that feels
so mute it’s almost in another year.

I am a hearth of spiders these days: a nest of trying.

We point out the stars that make Orion as we take out
       the trash, the rolling containers a song of suburban thunder.

It’s almost romantic as we adjust the waxy blue
       recycling bin until you say, Man, we should really learn
some new constellations.

And it’s true. We keep forgetting about Antlia, Centaurus,
       Draco, Lacerta, Hydra, Lyra, Lynx.

But mostly we’re forgetting we’re dead stars too, my mouth is full
       of dust and I wish to reclaim the rising—

to lean in the spotlight of streetlight with you, toward
       what’s larger within us, toward how we were born.

Look, we are not unspectacular things.
       We’ve come this far, survived this much. What

would happen if we decided to survive more? To love harder?

What if we stood up with our synapses and flesh and said, No.
     No, to the rising tides.

Stood for the many mute mouths of the sea, of the land?

What would happen if we used our bodies to bargain

for the safety of others, for earth,
                 if we declared a clean night, if we stopped being terrified,

if we launched our demands into the sky, made ourselves so big
people could point to us with the arrows they make in their minds,

rolling their trash bins out, after all of this is over?

12 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT July 26th 2021”

  1. Zeba Anwar

    List:
    I gaze upwards
    into the sky
    Asking for peace and love
    That can multiply

    Abundance of happiness
    Coolness of eyes
    Rest for a wearied soul
    To live eternally even if it dies….

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  2. Tony Errichetti

    In my airplane, if I had one,
    I’d pull a banner over the summer beaches of South Jersey that would say
    “EAT AT JOE’S”
    A place where the taking of a simple meal
    together
    would make us feel
    connected and satisfied.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • iamthestoryteller

      Despite its brevity, you manage to convey a lot in a few lines: humour and a sense of reverence invoked by the image of a “simple meal together”. I also love that you begin not with “If I had an airplane” but with the more assured “In my airplane” followed by the aside “if I had one”. So even in the absence of your vehicle, you invoke our imaginations to fly with you in the sky or at least to look up to read the message above us. And despite its commonplace nature (“Eat at Joe’s”), it conveys a deeper desire for connection and satisfaction. I love this.

      Like

      Reply
    • zeba anwar

      At the end of the day, we all have the same basic needs: to be satisfied, to stay connected. Food and sharing of food is how we demonstrate our love and allow for these basic needs to be fulfilled. I really enjoyed your perspective.

      Like

      Reply
  3. michele348

    Demands to launch into the sky~~~

    I peer into the night time sky.
    Quiet envelops me in a safe bubble.
    Perched above in the blackness are twinkling gems, making me feel so small, so powerless, so humble.
    What importance do I play in this universe that is so expansive?
    Do I have a right to claim a voice, a voice to send my demands, my prayers to the heavens above?

    I am as unique as the individual stars that illuminate the darkness.
    Within me are the desires I have for those that are confined to this planet with me,
    to those who struggle as I do.
    This planet that has given birth to multitudes of civilizations and which has grown so tired of the turmoil it has had to endure.

    I pray the waters and air of this earth become pure and safe for all creatures to enjoy.
    They are precious and are not to be squandered or recklessly tossed aside.

    I pray that all of earth’s children go to sleep at night with full bellies and full hearts,
    knowing that they are loved and cared for.

    I pray that each human being may stand tall and strong,
    secure in knowing that his individuality is a gift of the Creator.

    I pray that we all realize the importance of every single form of life be it human, animal or plant that occupies a space on this earth.
    When gone, it is gone forever.

    I send these prayers up into the night time sky, hoping that somehow they will be seen by all those who peer into the heavens as I do,
    and to be seen in the great expanse beyond.
    My prayers are bits and pieces of my heart wafting upward into the endless, boundless space.

    Does anyone see them?
    I pray they do.

    Like

    Reply
    • iamthestoryteller

      This is a powerful prayer that you have shared. Very moving. It’s interesting that in the past (and I suppose for many it’s still relevant) that we offered our prayers to a God or gods to be heard and answered. Your prayer suggests something more visual — that somehow your thoughts/prayers can be written in the sky for all to see. It’s not some higher power you beseech but all those who, as you say, “are confined to this planet with me”. Yet, you acknowledge that our “individuality is a gift of the Creator”. You raise an interesting question: do we wish our prayers to be seen and heard by the creator or seen (and read) by our fellow humans. So much is at stake in terms of our survival. This is a powerful prayer and spiritual reflection. Thank you for sharing.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
    • zeba anwar

      we are all connected to the stars, and your poem reflects the need for hope. hope for a better world for all of its inhabitants. in a world where it seems like we are constantly being divided and cannot agree on most things, this poem is a call for unity, to join in because we all want the same things. beautiful words, I enjoyed reading your reflection, thank you for sharing.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  4. Michael Williams

    Dead Planet

    I think that’s Mars, up there.
    The slightly reddish one, see it?

    Mars, the god of war — angry,
    angry that his breath was blown away leaving
    ochre dust, sealess deserts of what was —
    a dead planet.

    That might be us one day.
    Perhaps that’s what our curious rovers will sniff out
    and return to drop our fate at our feet like dogs are trained to do.
    We will rage at one another, at ourselves; we’ll shake our fists at the why.

    We have launched our demands into the sky,
    made ourselves so big,
    Demanding tribute to our Curiosity,
    while the stars point back at us as if to say
    “You are so big and yet you are still so far, far away.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • zeba anwar

      your work is a reminder that we still have a chance to turn this thing around before its too late, we have to treat the earth with respect. “shake our fists at the why” gives the reader a vivid visual. thank you for sharing.

      Like

      Reply
  5. Elizabeth

    Here we are just human beings,
    Where we have limited powers.
    But …
    What if we launched our wishes and desires into the sky?
    Would they manifest into reality?
    Or…
    Would they fall mercilessly to earth,
    Unanswered Stardust

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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