Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT April 15th 2022

10 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read an excerpt from Words are Birds by Francisco X. Alarcóny, posted below. 

Our prompt was: “Write about words without borders.”

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 Wednesday April 20th at 12pm EDT,  with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.

Words are Birds by Francisco X. Alarcóny

words
are birds
that arrive
with books
and spring
 
they
love
clouds
the wind
and trees
 
some words
are messengers
that come
from far away
from distant lands
 
for them
there are
no borders
only stars
moon and sun
 
some words
are familiar
like canaries
others are exotic
like the quetzal bird
 
some can stand
the cold
others migrate
with the sun
to the south
 
some words
die
caged—
they're difficult
to translate
 
and others
build nests
have chicks
warm them
feed them
 
teach them
how to fly
and one day
they go away
in flocks
 
the letters
on this page
are the prints
they leave
by the sea

Source: Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems (Lee & Low Books, 1997)

10 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT April 15th 2022”

  1. al3793

    Words Without Borders

    words fly
    soar
    sky limits
    no borders
    paradigm
    limit less
    give heart
    unction to the roughed up
    do your best
    yes
    just do
    heart loves
    graced soul
    lift spirit
    lift, lift, lift

    Like

    Reply
    • michele348

      And your words lift our spirits and grace our souls, lifting us to where love and kindness abound. Your words very much set our minds in motion, allowing them to soar above the troubles and heartache in the world in search of peace. Our mindset is like the wings of a bird, allowing us to fly above the dark clouds.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  2. michele348

    About words without borders~~~

    I see and hear the words– bombs, death, starving, crying, war, freedom, children, separation.
    Words from far away, but yet dig deeply into my heart.
    I sense the futility of war,
    the outrage of people trying to preserve their freedom,
    the fear in the eyes of children being torn from their parents, going to sleep with empty stomachs,
    with little hope for their future.

    When will humanity come to its senses?
    We are all one on this globe.
    Our lives are interdependent,
    like waves in the ocean traveling limitless distances.

    I pray this dark hole we are in will someday allow the sunlight in
    to disperse the darkness,
    allowing hope to fly in and brighten and illuminate its dark corners
    so that truth and goodness stand proudly in the sunlight.

    Like

    Reply
    • al3793

      Michele, your speaker’s question, “When will humanity come to its senses?” is penetrating. It is as if all the sensations you describe are not enough to awaken humanity. The answer for me resides in allowing the LIGHT into the recesses and dark corners or our lives. Thank you. Andre

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  3. Helen Mia

    Words without border’s….

    This brought to mind Plato’s caged birds:
    their wings fluttering in my throat
    their frail bones breaking in my mouth
    bearing no resemblance to what is real
    reliable
    what is tangible
    unspeakable
    not even on paper
    Words censored
    in flight

    dying to get out
    to wail themselves into existence

    I am not in my words
    words
    that sit precariously at the borders

    caged inaudible thoughts
    lost in translation
    their solitude pregnant with meaning

    then the anguish of not saying what I really wanted to say
    if words were birds
    they could nestle in to print
    I would be temporarily made real
    myself in ink
    therefore, I must be

    if I write with a bow of broken hair
    I’d be writing myself
    without ever meeting her in person

    Like

    Reply
    • michele348

      Helen, what powerful words..”wings fluttering, frail bones breaking in my mouth”. Words caged in the mind, not being spoken or printed on paper causing such turmoil for the speaker. Excellent, Helen.

      Like

      Reply
      • harrishelenhotmailcom

        Thank you dear Michele, and your words resonate strongly; “allowing hope to fly in and brighten and illuminate its dark corners” – very moving…

        Liked by 1 person

  4. Elizabeth

    Can we ever really write words without borders?
    We write within the constraints of our cultural and social appropriateness.
    We write within the edges of the baggage we bring with us.
    We write within the margins of narratives of the stories of our lives.

    Can we ever write freely…
    Like a tabula rasa?
    Like a clean slate?
    Like a white chalkboard?
    I don’t think so,
    But if we did…
    We would lose the richness of words
    That birth and grow from within
    The confines of our unique and individual borders.

    Like

    Reply
    • michele348

      I agree, Elizabeth. Our words are tinted with the color of our life history… an amalgam of experiences that spur us on to speak the words or to put them down on paper. Sometimes they may even be unbridled in emotion.

      Like

      Reply

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