Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read an excerpt from How to Bloom in Dark Places by Warsan Shire, posted below. 

Our prompt was to begin your writing with “We will…” or “We pledge…”

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.

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

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How to Bloom in Dark Places by Warsan Shire

How many arms do I need to grow to
fight off what scares me?
How many legs to leave?
How many dreams until mother tells
me how to escape this place?
Mother has given me a message.
I must tell the girls, so they can
memorise it too.
If I ever forget, they will remind
Me.

I read to them the words as my mother said them.
We pledge allegiance to our bodies,
We pledge allegiance to fortifying our
girlhood.
We pledge allegiance to water,
to it’s dutiful scarcity,
we do not bow to thirst and the shadow it
casts over our lives.
We will be our own mothers,
We will be the big sisters we never had,
We will be the fathers we almost had
We will fortify our own walls,
We will protect the vulnerable,
We will protect ourselves,
so, we will protect each other.