Encuentros virtuales en vivo: Sรกbado 5 de julio, 13:00 EDT

Nos reunimos 4 personas desde Nueva York, Argentina, Repรบblica Dominicana y Espaรฑa. Trabajamos con la pinturaย Escalier 54 Rue de Seine (1990), deย Sam Szafran.

Los elementos estructuralesโ€”vigas de madera, barandillas y detalles arquitectรณnicosโ€”se representan con una atenciรณn precisa a sus texturas erosionadas y relaciones geomรฉtricas. A travรฉs de una abertura en el hueco de la escalera, vislumbramos una vista del patio de un edificio vecino con ventanas tradicionales francesas y techos de tejas verdes, proporcionando un momento de luz exterior que contrasta con la sensaciรณn cerrada del interior. La imagen recuerda a otros autores que tambiรฉn han usado la imagen de la escalera como espacio imposible. Impresiona que las escaleras no llegan a ningรบn destino. Pero llama mรกs la atenciรณn que la imagen se centra en una ventana desde la que se ven otras ventanas. Y esto hace pensar en la existencia de mรบltiples perspectivas, de personas que ven la vida desde diferentes puntos. Llama la atenciรณn la homogeneidad de los colores: solo beige, verde y gris.

La ventana es una metรกfora de que solo vemos una parte del mundo, del universo, de la vida, lo que la ventana nos permite. La obra de Szafran explora a menudo temas de contenciรณn e infinidad dentro de los espacios domรฉsticos. Esta escalera se convierte en una metรกfora de la memoria y el paso del tiempo: El descenso repetitivo y en espiral sugiere tanto la naturaleza cรญclica de la vida cotidiana como las profundidades del recuerdo. El artista pasรณ dรฉcadas documentando esta misma escalera, creando un cuerpo de trabajo que funciona como registro arquitectรณnico y paisaje psicolรณgico. Se comentรณ la contraposiciรณn entre lo interior y lo exterior. 

La escalera no nos deja ver en que piso estamos ni adonde vamos. Nos deja a medio camino. La escalera es un proceso incompleto, nos faltan tramos. 

Alguien asociรณ las escaleras con el esfuerzo, la luz que entra por la ventana ilumina por una esquina, como la vida, que solo se ilumina una parte de la escalera.

La imagen despierta diferentes ideas y emociones: confusiรณn, estar atrapado, no poder escapar. La escalera es un elemento arquitectรณnico dotado de mรบltiples significados metafรณricos.

Escribimos bajo la propuesta: โ€œEscribe sobre las escaleras de tu vidaโ€.

Escribimos ensayos sobre la escalera y sus metรกforas. La escalera como metรกfora de la vida. Salieron los peldaรฑos de la vida. Escribimos en la sombra de la pintura. Las escaleras de nuestras infancias. Sobre la dificultad de subir algunas escaleras. Y sobre nuestro papel construyendo peldaรฑos para otras personas.

Fue una sesiรณn enriquecedora con mucho para considerar

Aquรญ, ahora alentamos a los participantes que, si asรญ lo desean, compartan lo que escribieron a continuaciรณn. Deja tu respuesta aquรญ, si deseas continuar la conversaciรณn sobre la pintura Escalier 54 Rue de Seine (1990), de Sam Szafran. Pero antes, les recomendamos tener en cuenta que el blog es un espacio pรบblico donde, por supuesto, no se garantiza la confidencialidad.

Por favor, รบnase a nosotros en nuestra prรณxima sesiรณn en espaรฑol: Elย sรกbado 2 de agosto a las 13 hrs. o a la 1 pm EST. Tambiรฉn, ofrecemos sesiones en inglรฉs. Ve aย nuestra pรกgina deย sesiones grupales virtuales en vivo.

ยกEsperamos verte pronto!


Sam Szafran por Escalier 54 Rue de Seine 1990

Credit: Sam Szafran


Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT June 30th 2025

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at the painting Woman in Blue” by Chaim Soutine, posted below.

Our prompt was:ย โ€œWrite about something untold.โ€

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (โ€œLeave a Replyโ€), 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 youโ€™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 July 11th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on ourย Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Woman in Blue by Chaim Soutine

Credit: Chaim Soutine. barnesfoundation.org


Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT June 27th 2025

For this session we read a poem“Redeem” by Rosalie Moffett, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about a redemption center.โ€

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (โ€œLeave a Replyโ€), 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 youโ€™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 July 30th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Redeem by Rosalie Moffett
The sun was losing
a long gold tooth

on the linoleum
of the labor and delivery ward.

I lifted my plastic bracelet to the green eye
of the barcode gun and it sang

the first note
of moneyโ€™s national anthem.

Redeem, a word with its feet
in the cement block

of bribe, of buy. Each Tylenol,
a tiny egg in the nest

of the nurseโ€™s cupped hand,
rematerialized weeks later

on the itemized bill. Nearby, a sign
on the fine diamond storefront:

GOING OUT OF SIN !

Redemption, a mercy

of wind, of one idea
asleep in another.

I had been the nation
you lived in. Like a shore

in lapping water,
you made your borders

expand a little
with each breath.

Source: Poetry (April 2024)

Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT June 20th 2025

For this session we took a close look at the paiting “The Rapture” by Sean Earley, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about being suspended.โ€

More details will be posted on this session, so check back again!

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (โ€œLeave a Replyโ€), 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 youโ€™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 June 27th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

The Rapture by Sean Earley

Credit: John Earley. Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Paul Bridgewater


Encuentros virtuales en vivo: Sรกbado 14 de junio, 13:00 EDT

RESUMEN SESIร“N 14 de junio de 2025

Nos reunimos 5 personas desde diferentes Nueva York, Espaรฑa, y Argentina. Leรญmos el poema y la canciรณn, Me he quedado sin pulso y sin aliento, de รngel Gonzรกlez. Dos personas diferentes leyeron el poema y despuรฉs escuchamos la canciรณn cantada por Pedro Guerra. 

Este hermoso soneto expresa la devastaciรณn emocional que produce la separaciรณn del ser amado, utilizando imรกgenes corporales y sensoriales muy poderosas.

Alguien inmediatamente asignรณ la voz masculina al poeta, aunque el sexo no es obvio y se comentรณ que el autor se pierde en el otro. Otra persona comento sobre la estructura del poema y que parece ligada a la religiรณn; la elecciรณn de las palabras parece que se hicieron para rimar o por su significado.

Otro participante se pregunta si el poema habla a una pareja romรกntica o a algo fรญsico interior, algo corporal. Cuando oรญmos la canciรณn, el ritmo, influye profundamente en nuestra interpretaciรณn. Alguien seรฑalรณ que pensaba que era de naturaleza romรกntica basada en la canciรณn.

Un participante comento que es interesante que el poema diga que estamos muertos, que el corazรณn se convierte en polvo: eso es la muerte. El poeta expresa que la ausencia es el รบltimo dolor corporal.

La imagen del ciego que extiende los brazos contra el viento es particularmente conmovedora – captura esa bรบsqueda desesperada de algo que ya no estรก ahรญ, el impulso corporal que persiste a pesar de saber que es inรบtil.

El verso final es devastador: “contra todo me doy, ciego me hiero.” El dolor es tan grande que se vuelve autodestructivo, una lucha ciega contra la realidad misma.

Escribimos bajo la propuesta: โ€œEscribe sobre tu pulso y tu alientoโ€. Escribimos del pulso y el aliento personal y del de nuestras familias, de la perspectiva personal y en la sombra del texto, y que es mejor tenerlos que la ausencia de ellos.

Fue una sesiรณn enriquecedora con mucho para considerar

Aquรญ, ahora alentamos a los participantes que, si asรญ lo desean, compartan lo que escribieron a continuaciรณn. Deja tu respuesta aquรญ, si deseas continuar la conversaciรณn sobre el poema y la canciรณn, Me he quedado sin pulso y sin aliento, de รngel Gonzalez. Pero antes, les recomendamos tener en cuenta que el blog es un espacio pรบblico donde, por supuesto, no se garantiza la confidencialidad.

Por favor, รบnase a nosotros en nuestra prรณxima sesiรณn en espaรฑol: Elย sรกbado 5 de julio a las 13 hrs. o a la 1 pm EDT. Tambiรฉn, ofrecemos sesiones en inglรฉs. Ve aย nuestra pรกgina deย sesiones grupales virtuales en vivo.


EN MEMORIA DE Mร MISMO de Paul Auster Traducciรณn de Jordi Doce

Sencillamente haberme detenido.

Como si pudiera empezar
donde mi voz se ha detenido, yo mismo
el sonido de una palabra

que no puedo decir.

Tanto silencio
vuelto a la vida
en esta pensativa carne, en este rรญtmico
tambor interior de palabras:
tantas palabras

perdidas en el ancho mundo
de mi interior, y de ese modo haber sabido
que a pesar de mรญ mismo

estoy aquรญ.

Como si esto fuera el mundo.

Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT June 9th 2025

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read excerpt from Emperor of Gladness by Ocean Vuong, posted below.

Our prompt was:ย โ€œWrite about a memory of water.โ€

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (โ€œLeave a Replyโ€), 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 youโ€™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 June 20th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

The hardest thing in the world is to live only once.

But itโ€™s beautiful here, even the ghosts agree. Mornings, when the light rinses this place the shade of oatmeal, they rise as mist over the rye across the tracks and stumble toward the black-spired pines searching for their names, names that no longer live in any living thingโ€™s mouth. Our town is raised up from a scab of land along a river in New England. When the prehistoric glaciers melted, the valley became a world-sized lake, and when that dried up it left a silvery trickle along the basin called the Connecticut: Algonquin for โ€œlong tidal river.โ€ The sediment here is rich with every particle welcoming to life. As you approach, youโ€™ll be flanked by wide stretches of thumb-sized buds shooting lucent through April mud. Within months these saplings will stand as packed rows of broadleaf tobacco and silver queen corn. Beyond the graveyard whose stones have lost their names to years, thereโ€™s a covered bridge laid over a dried-up brook whose memory of water never reached this century. Cross that and youโ€™ll find us. Turn right at Conwayโ€™s Sugar Shack, gutted and shuttered, with windows blown out and the wooden sign that reads WE SWEETEN SOON AS THE CROCUS BLOOM, rubbed to braille by wind. In spring the cherry blossoms foam across the county from every patch of green unclaimed by farms or strip malls. They came to us from centuries of shit, dropped over this place by geese whenever summer beckons their hollow bones north.

excerpt from Emperor of Gladness,ย Ocean Vuong


Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT June 2nd 2025

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read an excerpt from Wandering Stars” by Tommy Orange, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about what is lost in the taking?โ€

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (โ€œLeave a Replyโ€), 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 youโ€™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 9th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange excerpt from pg. 83

Well heโ€™s only got the one eye, but itโ€™s got more life in it than Iโ€™ve seen in some men with two. And Iโ€™ve seen worse when they know what they want and theyโ€™re hungry for it, white men in this country, they come to take everything, even themselves, they have taken so much they have lost themselves in the taking, and what will be left of such a nation once they are done? My mother once said, “A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Then it is finished, no matter how brave its warriors, or how strong their weapons.โ€ I wondered about the women’s hearts on the ground. And I wondered about American women. White women. Where were their hearts? I take solace in knowing my heart is still in my chest, that yours is in there too, beating like a drum waiting for its dancer, keeping me on my feet, ready for a rhythm, ready for what’s next, because what’s next is always coming.

Your father had a harder time at the school, because he was a boy but also because of his freckles, which he had on account of him being a half-breed, which meant he got it bad from both sides. No one wanted him because he didn’t seem like he belonged enough on either side.

Sometimes the look on his face got so bad it seemed to be saying he didn’t even belong to himself, did not even want to belong to himself.

Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange p. 83

Credit: Tommy Orange


Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT May 30th 2025

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 / ่ˆ‡” by Jonathan C Chou, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about seeing without understanding.โ€

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (โ€œLeave a Replyโ€), 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 youโ€™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 / ่ˆ‡ by Jonathan C Chou

Credit: Jonathan C Chou


Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT May 23rd 2025

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: โ€œWriteย about unwritten rules.โ€

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (โ€œLeave a Replyโ€), 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 youโ€™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,ย Polly Bartonย (Translator)


Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT May 16th 2025

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:ย โ€œWrite about what’s worth paying attention to.โ€

More details will be posted on this session, so check back again!

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (โ€œLeave a Replyโ€), 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 youโ€™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 ourย Live Virtual Group Sessions.

We by Joshua Bennett

The money of โ€Šthe mind is attention, maybe.

Which is not, initially, where I thought Iโ€™d begin,

but weโ€™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 fatherโ€™s when he lifted a stranger

off the ground he saw through the driverโ€™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:ย Poetryย (May 2025)