Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT September 11th 2026

11 Comments

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem “Returning Birds” by Wisława Szymborska, and took a close look at “Paysage Azteeque 1950″ by Rufino Tomayo posted below.

Our prompt was: “Begin your writing with: “Rejoice, O reason…”.”

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Please join us for our next session Wednesday September 23rd at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Credit: Rufino Tomayo, Paysage Azteeque 1950 

Returning Birds
  by Wisława Szymborska

This spring the birds came back again too early.
Rejoice, O reason: instinct can err, too.
It gathers wool, it dozes off — and down they fall
into the snow, into a foolish fate, a death
that doesn’t suit their well-wrought throats and splendid claws,
their honest cartilage and conscientious webbing,
the heart’s sensible sluice, the entrails’ maze,
the nave of ribs, the vertebrae in stunning enfilades,
feathers deserving their own wing in any crafts museum,
the Benedictine patience of the beak.

This is not a dirge — no, it’s only indignation.
An angel made of earthbound protein,
a living kite with glands straight from the Song of Songs,
singular in air, without number in the hand,
its tissues tied into a common knot
of place and time, as in an Aristotelian drama
unfolding to the wings’ applause,
falls down and lies beside a stone,
which in its own archaic, simpleminded way
sees life as a chain of failed attempts.

11 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT September 11th 2026”

  1. Trevor Hebert's avatar Trevor Hebert

    Rejoice, O’ Reason!

    For the season is upon us to distrust those who claim to be “In the know.”

    Their justifications border on treason, the false promises paid behind closed doors under the premise of honor from the same place as a gentleman who once said “Four score and 20 years ago.”

    The suffering that takes place despite a race to the bottom… whether we see reason, there is no rhyme so there MUST NOT be reason.

    HARK! The angels sing. But not from missiles thrown to war torn countries with notes in languages they can’t read.

    Simply justice in it’s final form – to plant the seeds that breathe life into one another.

    We, the people, do not consent to the atrocities of man. We will not conform, rather we will weather this storm until we can finally find peace again.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • antoinette56's avatar antoinette56

      Dear Trevor, I love that “reason” “season” and “treason” all rhyme, and that you give us stock phrases in fresh forms. *sigh* about the content (or rather, *tearing hair out and rending clothes*) Best, Antoinette

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  2. michele348's avatar michele348

    Rejoice, O Reason~~~

    Rejoice, O reason, for the sun still dared to rise this morning, although there are sounds of war off in the distance, blood-stained earth of man’s inhumanity to mankind, children wandering about homeless and hungry, and multitudes who have lost hope.

    I rejoice for there is reason for joy, even though others try to convince me otherwise.

    My Creator holds me in His arms, bringing comfort to my heart, slowing its chaotic beat.

    I must hold onto this feeling, as the world tries to pull me apart with its angry words of hate.

    It is my lifeline to maintaining sanity in an insane world.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • antoinette56's avatar antoinette56

      Dear Michele, I love the reminder that our reason is ours and can not be co-opted by others. Did you ever read Michiko Kakutani’s The Death of Truth – a sobering but somehow inspirational read. Best, Antoinette

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  3. antoinette56's avatar antoinette56

    Rejoice, O Reason…

    Yours is not the task to complete all on your own

    For so much is needed besides your logic, your formulae and complex angular predictions

    The language of heart is needed also, its puzzling internal rhymes and baffling segues

    No conclusion can be reached on your wings alone, Reason

    It’s a collective raft of airborne dust, more a murder or cacophony than a parliament

    And the feathers left behind may themselves tell a strange backward tale

    That the lonely child may follow just to be different and rebellious

    Only to find treasure, a hollow warm with birdsong

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • michele348's avatar michele348

      antoinette, as you said, it requires more than reasoning skills to arrive at equanimity in today’s world…possibly an out- of -this- world amount of forgiveness of those who seem bent on destruction. We are called upon to use this forgiveness, but I fear the supply is being depleted so rapidly, that a re-supply may not arrive in time.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  4. al3793's avatar al3793

    Rejoice O Reason

    Rejoice O Reason as

    The Sun’s red ray is

    Burning thru the ash and 

    Smell of burning concrete

    Penetrating membrane and

    Softening sinew

    Drafts of fresh air

    Signal a new dawn

    Laying to rest the hate

    That wreaks carnage

    On an already mutilated word

    A new dawn that balances

    The freedom of instinct with 

    A wise view of what it means 

    To be alive. 

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
    • michele348's avatar michele348

      Jets becoming torpedoes seeking out innocent lives, and air turned to gray as lives come apart. Monuments erected, names imprinted, as a fresh September breeze cannot erase the atrocities of that day. Do we take for granted the time we are given…I think many of us do.

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  5. antoinette56's avatar antoinette56

    Dear Al3793 (is that Andre?) I love the juxtaposition of “burning concrete” with (in the shadow of the text) our own fragile sinews and membranes – what hope do we have, if even concrete burns? – but there is somehow still hope. Best, Antoinette

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