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: โWrite about diving in.โ
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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 donโt
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
Connections in Narrative Medicine 