Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EST March 4th 2022

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read an excerpt from We Lived Happily During the War by Ilya Kaminsky, posted below. 

Our prompt was: “Write about living in an invisible house.

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

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 March 7th at 6pm EST,  with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.


We Lived Happily During the War by Ilya Kaminsky

And when they bombed other people’s houses, we
 
protested
but not enough, we opposed them but not
 
enough. I was
in my bed, around my bed America
 
was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house.
 
I took a chair outside and watched the sun.
 
In the sixth month
of a disastrous reign in the house of money
 
in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)
 
lived happily during the war.

5 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EST March 4th 2022

  1. Patricia D.

    The House of My Heart

    You may not see the door
    it’s down the hall from
    2 lungs.

    You may not feel the beat
    of blood as it circulates
    4 chambers.

    You may not understand
    its raison d’etre
    2 love.

    But, invisible as it is,
    the house of my heart
    bleeds 4 you.

    You, who live in homes
    being bombed by
    unseen 1000s.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Terry Hourigan

    We make it up as we go along. What’s out your window? Are there cobblestone streets? Do the kids all have wagons? Smart phones? Dolls? Do they know what’s coming tomorrow? Will they have us and hold us, or miss us, search for us?

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Elizabeth

    The invisible house,
    Is it an innocent house?
    We don’t know.

    We can’t see it,
    But it exists.
    What happens inside?
    We don’t know.
    Why?
    Because it is invisible.

    We don’t know,
    Is it invisible because we can’t see it?
    Or
    Is it invisible because we don’t want to see?

    Liked by 1 person

  4. michele348

    About living in an invisible house~~~

    I live in a house that is invisible to others.
    I peer out its windows to America- the land of plenty.
    A country of diversity but one that has a difficult time in its acceptance of those differences.

    I see our children who have lost their caretakers as a result of Covid and now are members of makeshift families.

    I see my brothers and sisters struggling to receive mental health care because of the deluge of stress placed upon their lives.

    Do you see me struggling to keep my head above water or am I invisible too?

    Like

  5. About living in an invisible house…..

    Watching from your invisible house
    shivering with terror and cold
    an imperceptible pitch blackness
    not a trace of light can be seen
    only the wreckage of broken glass
    shimmering against the moon

    Apartment blocks appear unoccupied
    yet we know you are in there
    we can not see you, feel you but we can only imagine
    despair beyond words….
    and down in the invisible underground
    a Ukrainian woman comes up for air
    said the saturation of grief was choking her
    Goodbyes
    a kiss – holding tightly
    Inhaling what could be their last scent of love
    If when where or how….

    “Mummy there’s a fire in the sky and big bangs”
    She said don’t worry Kuzma there just fireworks.

    Liked by 1 person

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