Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EST January 10th 2022

22 Comments

Happy New Year, and thank you to everyone who rejoined us for our first session of 2022!

For this session we close-read the poem New Day’s Lyric by Amanda Gorman, posted below.

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

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!

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Please join us for our next session Friday January 14th at 12pm EST,  with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

New Day's Lyric by Amanda Gorman

May this be the day
We come together.
Mourning, we come to mend,
Withered, we come to weather,
Torn, we come to tend,
Battered, we come to better.
Tethered by this year of yearning,
We are learning
That though we weren’t ready for this,
We have been readied by it.
We steadily vow that no matter
How we are weighed down,
We must always pave a way forward.

This hope is our door, our portal.
Even if we never get back to normal,
Someday we can venture beyond it,
To leave the known and take the first steps.
So let us not return to what was normal,
But reach toward what is next.

What was cursed, we will cure.
What was plagued, we will prove pure.
Where we tend to argue, we will try to agree,
Those fortunes we forswore, now the future we foresee,
Where we weren’t aware, we’re now awake;
Those moments we missed
Are now these moments we make,
The moments we meet,
And our hearts, once all together beaten,
Now all together beat.

Come, look up with kindness yet,
For even solace can be sourced from sorrow.
We remember, not just for the sake of yesterday,
But to take on tomorrow.

We heed this old spirit,
In a new day’s lyric,
In our hearts, we hear it:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
Be bold, sang Time this year,
Be bold, sang Time,
For when you honor yesterday,
Tomorrow ye will find.
Know what we’ve fought
Need not be forgot nor for none.
It defines us, binds us as one,
Come over, join this day just begun.
For wherever we come together,
We will forever overcome.

22 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EST January 10th 2022”

  1. Patricia D.

    Mending is a skill from an era when socks were darned; a time when a child yearned for a toy that, when broken, could be repaired.
    Remember the Maytag man? Well, he is now unemployed as the throw-away culture has encroached upon our psyches.
    Then and now hearts still require mending – not with a needle and thread or metal piece that fits snuggly into place – but by an act of kindness.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    • al3793

      Then and now hearts still require mending…by acts of kindness. The Tinman needed metal pieces to replace parts dismembered by the wicked witch’s spell, but it was an act of the heart, his love for the Munchkin maiden (cour-age) that brought true healing. Andre

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. Scarlet Kinney

    Hearing Gorman recite the poem was wonderful, as the way she spoke and gestured tied together for me what felt like a lot of disconnected or loose ends when I read it.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Scarlet Kinney

    Prompt: Write About Mending

    With what will I mend
    The abyss that yawns before me,
    Rent by the death of so many cherished illusions
    That were once woven into the fabric
    From which my reality was sewn?

    Or is mending what’s required?
    Better perhaps to explore its depths
    For clarity about the new reality
    That awaits me there,
    For it feels both dark and bright,
    Devoid of hope,
    Rich with potential.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • Scarlet Kinney

      As usual I’m struck by the diversity of the responses to Monday’s prompt, which range from mending socks to mending relationships and walls, to mending time, to deciding not to mend the abyss I wrote about.

      Like

      Reply
    • al3793

      Your speaker’s contrasts are so stark and challenging and willing to risk greatly for the adventure seemingly “devoid of hope” yet “rich with potential.”
      I love the image of the yawning abyss before me. Andre

      Like

      Reply
      • Scarlet Kinney

        Thanks, Andre. I was startled by what came up for me in this session, as I so often am when asked to respond quickly to a prompt, and now I’m thinking about what I’ll do. I’ve pretty much decided that I’m going to jump, and see if I can discover what potential devoid of hope is all about. Always before potential has been attached to hope in some way. No so at present. Also, I’m delighted by so many people sharing and communicating about the idea of mending, ranging from the very personal to the very abstract.

        Liked by 1 person

  4. michele348

    Mending walls…do you see them crumbling?
    Cracks in relationships broaden into ravines,
    we must hurry to their aid before they collapse.

    Let us search for commonalities instead of differences.
    Are we all that different from each other?
    Some may say yes, but I tend to disagree.
    Hearts beating in similar fashion,
    with life’s hardships causing them to ache…
    joys warming our spirits,
    casting optimism for the life journey ahead.

    We wish for peace, if only we are able to compromise,
    to see others rather than looking beyond them.
    It is not me against you,
    but it is us forging a path ahead,
    together we are so much stronger.

    Mending walls, between individuals, between countries of the world.
    To live in harmony, indivisible, facing the sharp edges of the world.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • al3793

      The Spirit only needs the tiniest of crack to enter. I like the “hearts beating in unison”, “to see the other”, “it is us forging a path ahead”, “indivisible, facing the sharp edges of the world.” Your speaker poses questions, shares observations and then offers direction, solutions – shares so much in such a short time. Andre

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply
  5. Katie O'Grady

    Mending By Time

    Mending time through
    history’s cracked fingertips.

    Slip slip
    Drip drip
    Stich stitch

    Sunlight falls upon
    golden palms.

    Clips of warmth
    fill our hollow hands.

    As the stitches between
    the soil intertwine,

    Like the tethered blanket
    of our shared sorrows.

    KVL

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  6. al3793

    Write about mending.

    Darning a sock is a mending that we don’t do anymore.
    It was meant to fix holes in our socks.
    Our mother insisted that no hands remained idle
    even as Gone with the Wind played on
    Friday Night at the Movies on WPIX.
    I recall that my closures looked like a
    random pile of Pick-up-Stix laid out to play.
    They didn’t look good, but they did the job.

    We don’t darn sox anymore
    but we still have holes to fix.
    We’ve lived through major tumults,
    Attempts to change what needed to be changed,
    to change hearts if not fix them,
    to redeem.
    But the din dies down until the next tumult arrives
    to awaken us from the lethargy that quelled our urges.

    But we won’t let ourselves succumb to the despair
    of seemingly fix-less holes.
    We must awaken ourselves and each other and
    walk through the door together into an
    unknown future that is our hope.

    afl 01_10_2021

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
      • al3793

        Patricia, we have some sort of connectedness. i am starting to have some surprises roll off the tip of the pen. These are the rewards for writing under the pressure of the prompt.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Patricia D.

        Indeed; is it not strange that a person you have only met in a group zoom meeting (many many meetings) can spark a connection? I smile when I see you there.
        I have decided to sit back a bit to encourage more people to share because the same people who are intent on going forward each time may intimidate those who are a bit more reluctant. Sharing here works well. I like when we respond to each other.

        Liked by 1 person

      • al3793

        Yes, Patricia, a smile comes to me as well. I’ve also tried to hold back to allow others opportunity, especially with so many new participants, but I try to respond to others’ writing as it helps build my facilitation skill. I love our community and I find the sessions so energizing and fulfilling. As you can see, I enjoy the dialogue on the blog here.

        Liked by 1 person

    • michele348

      This causes me to think about the prevailing thought regarding holes in socks… now it seems the action is to toss them in the trash and buy a new pair, rather than taking the time mending them. It seems we have become a “toss out the old, bring in the new” type of society. This is maybe our thinking in regards to our older citizens who should be considered to be “treasures filled with a wealth of knowledge and experiences” but rather are thought of as worn-out individuals to be put to the side and forgotten.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • Scarlet Kinney

        I remember my grandmothers teaching me how to mend socks using a wooden darning egg. I don’t have one now, but I still remember the method.

        Liked by 1 person

  7. Elizabeth

    The relationship needs mending
    It needed a lot of tending
    Must I mention
    It needed much attention
    But there was contention
    So after introspection
    For my own self-protection
    Because of energy depletion
    I won’t bring this to completion
    For a renewed befriending
    The work’s too never-ending

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • al3793

      Elizabeth, the cadence of your speaker’s comment suggests an urgency to arrive at the conclusion – a conclusion of never ending work. It took me back to to Gorman’s performance and its energy. Andre

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • Elizabeth

        Andre, I was definitely writing in the shadow of the poem’s rhythm. Her poem had an energy and intensity that I liked and I was drawn in. I am also fascinated by the subject of idealism vs reality for life situations and the balance of the two.

        Like

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