Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EST January 14th 2022

7 Comments

Happy Thank you to everyone who joined us for our this session!

For this session we close-read the poem Constantly Risking Absurdity (#15) by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: “Write about a highwire of your own making.” 

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 Tuesday January 18th at 5pm EST,  with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

Constantly Risking Absurdity (#15) by Lawrence Ferlinghetti


Constantly risking absurdity
                                             and death
            whenever he performs
                                        above the heads
                                                            of his audience
   the poet like an acrobat
                                 climbs on rime
                                          to a high wire of his own making
and balancing on eyebeams
                                     above a sea of faces
             paces his way
                               to the other side of day
    performing entrechats
                               and sleight-of-foot tricks
and other high theatrics
                               and all without mistaking
                     any thing
                               for what it may not be

       For he's the super realist
                                     who must perforce perceive
                   taut truth
                                 before the taking of each stance or step
in his supposed advance
                                  toward that still higher perch
where Beauty stands and waits
                                     with gravity
                                                to start her death-defying leap

      And he
             a little charleychaplin man
                                           who may or may not catch
               her fair eternal form
                                     spreadeagled in the empty air
                  of existence

7 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EST January 14th 2022”

  1. michele348

    About a highwire of my own making~~~

    And it begins.
    I arise and look out about me,
    looking out on the world of so many confusing and conflicting thoughts and events.
    I wish I had a magic wand or a “genie in a bottle” that would make all this disappear.
    But alas, there is none.

    And so I go about, in my own small way, trying to right some of the wrongs I see about me.
    I put myself out on this highwire of life,
    risking absurdity.
    But is it really absurdity?

    If positive change occurs, then it was worth the risk.
    Life is constantly an act of risk-taking,
    but in the act, life is expanded and made full.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Scarlet Kinney

      Michele, you speak of a courage that’s for the long haul…a courage that keeps you moving forward for the long haul of life, doing what you can to set things right. I think that kind of courage is really what keeps the world turning…each one of us doing what we can given our life circumstances and encounters, to sort out the ills of the world with which we’re presented, touching one heart, one soul at a time, and I feel inspired by your writing to keep on.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. Scarlet Kinney

    A Tightrope of My Own Making

    In my youth, married far too young,
    Balancing children and far too much responsibility
    On my slender shoulders,
    I dreamed over and over again
    That I walked a tightrope
    Strung high above a suburb,
    Determined not to fall
    In horror into its life,
    Alien to me,
    For even then, in that time of toil and care,
    I knew I was an artist
    Before all else.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • michele348

      But Scarlett, you remained upright, balancing all the tasks life placed before you. And now you can look back with a certain amount of pride in what you have accomplished and what you still are accomplishing. Yes, quite the artist you are.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  3. Dafni Tarara

    Sometimes it escapes me
    Other times I’m in control
    It’s still rough and raw
    and the whole process scary;
    above all hazardous
    and yet unstoppable-
    just like the notes coming out from inside
    which I cannot seem to mute.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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