Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT October 17th 2022

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem First Fall by Maggie Smith, posted below. 

Our prompt was: Write an introduction to a season or Write about knowing it will come back.

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 Friday October 21st at 12 pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.


First Fall by Maggie Smith

I’m your guide here. In the evening-dark
morning streets, I point and name.
Look, the sycamores, their mottled,
paint-by-number bark. Look, the leaves
rusting and crisping at the edges.
I walk through Schiller Park with you
on my chest. Stars smolder well
into daylight. Look, the pond, the ducks,
the dogs paddling after their prized sticks.
Fall is when the only things you know
because I’ve named them
begin to end. Soon I’ll have another
season to offer you: frost soft
on the window and a porthole
sighed there, ice sleeving the bare
gray branches. The first time you see
something die, you won’t know it might
come back. I’m desperate for you
to love the world because I brought you here.

Credit: poetryfoundation.org
Maggie Smith, "First Fall" from Good Bones.  
Copyright © 2017 by Maggie Smith.  

4 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT October 17th 2022

  1. Rita B

    The season of life – Rita Basuray

    Hope is eternal.
    We learn as we live, that different seasons blend into each other and return, even if some are harsh and others can be mild. I wish I had a favorite season, a favorite day or time to mark time to return to that moment again, to cherish it. But, I just float through life, accepting the fact that one day my time will be over without fanfare. That’s ok. My hope for a simple end is an eternal wish as well.

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Scarlet Kinney

    You’ll Know

    You’ll know
    When the air is moist
    With the fecund scent of damp earth.

    You’ll know
    When the black-eyed junco returns
    And follows you, singing.

    You’ll know
    When new life begins to appear
    From deep within the sleeping earth
    The the season of mourning has come again, and
    It’s calling your name.

    Liked by 2 people

  3. About knowing it will come back~~~

    The leaves are falling to earth, one by one, crunching underfoot.
    They have performed their function of nourishing mother tree during the season of warmth and sunshine.
    There is a sadness within me as I see the colors of spring and summer wither away and leave only their memories within me.

    Days grow shorter, a chill in the air, and life slows down.
    Time to take stock of what has passed and what is yet to come.
    Have I squeezed the joy out of all these special moments?

    These thoughts will keep me warm during the cold of winter, for I know, come Spring, the tree buds will break forth and the cycle of life will repeat.
    Mother Nature will comfort me once again and holds me close.

    Liked by 2 people

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