Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at a graphic image from “R E S E M B L A N C E / 與” by Jonathan C Chou, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about seeing without understanding.”

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 June 2nd at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

From R E S E M B L A N C E / 與 by Jonathan C Chou

Credit: Jonathan C Chou

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read an excerpt from the book “There’s No Such Thing as an Easy Job” by Kikuko Tsumura, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about unwritten rules.”

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 May 30th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Credit: Kikuko Tsumura, Polly Barton (Translator)

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem “We” by Joshua Bennett, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about what’s worth paying attention to.”

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 May 23rd 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

We by Joshua Bennett

The money of  the mind is attention, maybe.

Which is not, initially, where I thought I’d begin,

but we’re already here now, using the language

of care and economy, though God-talk was truly

my first way in. Sustained attention is how we approach

a flesh and blood experience of the Divine I say to the

therapist nodding her head, only moments after

we disagree over whether her dress is coral or yellow

-based red, as opposed, of course, to a blue-based

red, like the square on her tartan scarf. My jacket

is the color of snow on television. My eyes

are as brown as my father’s when he lifted a stranger

off the ground he saw through the driver’s side window

beating a woman on Broadway. I am almost the age now

he was then, and am still studying the difference between

what a man proclaims in speech and what he says with his

body. Tomorrow marks another year on Earth for his third

son, and he is a father now, with a boy he is trying to teach

the benefits of apprehension. Who instead prefers to walk

on his hands, leap from the playground slide, climb

on countertops to watch TV from another room entirely.

Where does my influence, my aspiration, end and the child

begin? Who refashions the cosmos with his laughter.

Source: Poetry (May 2025)

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem “Seated Beside Iggy at a Dinner Party” by Anne Tannam, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about diving in.”

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 May 16th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Seated Beside Iggy at a Dinner Party by Anne Tannam

It's hard not to feel intimidated. After all, this is
   the man who invented the stage dive, bare-chested 

haloed father of punk rock, ecstatic, bloodied, wing-torn
   Icarus, resurrected, strutting his tail feathers, embracing 

the legend of the fall. Puts you in mind of your mother,
   who, on her sixtieth birthday, skydived from a height

of ten thousand feet, the crack of her ankle breaking
   heralded her triumphant descent, into the family hall of fame.

You wait until they've served dessert, a rich chocolate 
   ganache tart, garnished with the season's first strawberries,

before turning to glance sideways at his face, its hush
   of concentration, each spoonful manna from heaven lifted 

reverently to his lips, rapt expression a cross between Tiny
   Tim's and Scrooge's as they feasted on the ghost of second 

chances and the promise of Christmas all year round. Swivelling
   in your seat, you clear your throat; it's now or never.

When will you again get the chance to crack the code
   of how to live like tomorrow is a conspiracy 

of the imagination? He puts down his spoon, like he's got 
   all day, waits for you to form the words. If you don’t

mind me asking, your face reddening, how do you 
do it; how do you live like you're never going to die?

He gestures to your untouched plate: the scalloped 
   pastry's golden crust, the heady marriage of chocolate

and cream, the curvaceous blush of summer fruit. A gift 
   from the gods, he says, beckoning: go on, dive in.

Credit: Anne Tannam

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at the painting “Touch” by Rembrandt, posted below.

Our prompt was: “Write about pain anticipated.”

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 May 12th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Touch by Rembrandt

Libby, Alexandra, Ilona van Tuinen, and Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. “Allegory of Hearing, Allegory of Smell, Allegory of Touch, from The Series of the Five Senses” (2017). . In The Leiden Collection Catalogue, 4th ed. Edited by Arthur K. Wheelock Jr. and Elizabeth Nogrady with Caroline Van Cauwenberge. New York, 2023–. https://theleidencollection.com/artwork/stone-operation/ (accessed May 05, 2025).