Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT October 14th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at the piece titled Disability” by Allessandro Gatto, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about a space.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 October 25th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Disability” by Allessandro Gatto

Credit: Allessandro Gatto


Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT October 11th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem From Blossoms” by Li-Young Lee, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about finding joy from day to day to day.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 Monday October 14th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on ourย Live Virtual Group Sessions.

From Blossoms by Li-Young Lee

From blossoms comes
this brown paper bag of peaches
we bought from the boy
at the bend in the road where we turned toward
signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,
from sweet fellowship in the bins,
comes nectar at the roadside, succulent
peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,
comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,
to carry within us an orchard, to eat
not only the skin, but the shade,
not only the sugar, but the days, to hold
the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into
the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live
as if death were nowhere
in the background; from joy
to joy to joy, from wing to wing,
from blossom to blossom to
impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

Credit: Li-Young Lee, โ€œFrom Blossomsโ€ from Rose.

Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT September 30th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem Great Things Have Happened” by Alden Nowlan, posted below.

Our prompt was:ย โ€œWrite your first thoughts in the shadowย of this poem.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 October 11th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on ourย Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Great Things Have Happened by Alden Nowlan

We were talking about the great things
that have happened in our lifetimes;
and I said, "Oh, I suppose the moon landing
was the greatest thing that has happened
in my time." But, of course, we were all lying.
The truth is the moon landing didn't mean
one-tenth as much to me as one night in 1963
when we lived in a three-room flat in what once had been
the mansion of some Victorian merchant prince
(our kitchen had been a clothes closet, I'm sure),
on a street where by now nobody lived
who could afford to live anywhere else.
That night, the three of us, Claudine, Johnnie and me,
woke up at half-past four in the morning
and ate cinnamon toast together.

"Is that all?" I hear somebody ask.

Oh, but we were silly with sleepiness
and, under our windows, the street-cleaners
were working their machines and conversing in Italian, and
everything was strange without being threatening,
even the tea-kettle whistled differently
than in the daytime: it was like the feeling
you get sometimes in a country you've never visited
before, when the bread doesn't taste quite the same,
the butter is a small adventure, and they put
paprika on the table instead of pepper,
except that there was nobody in this country
except the three of us, half-tipsy with the wonder
of being alive, and wholly enveloped in love.

"Great Things Have Happened" by Alden Nowlan, from What Happened When He Went to the Store for Bread. ยฉ Nineties Press, 1993. Reprinted with permission

Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT September 27th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem For What Binds Us” by Jane Hirshfield, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about a small triumph.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 Monday September 30th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

For What Binds Us by Janeย Hirshfield

There are names for what binds us:
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them:
the skin that forms in a half-empty cup,
nails rusting into the places they join,
joints dovetailed on their own weight.
The way things stay so solidly
wherever they've been set downโ€”
and gravity, scientists say, is weak.

And see how the flesh grows back
across a wound, with a great vehemence,
more strong
than the simple, untested surface before.
There's a name for it on horses,
when it comes back darker and raised: proud flesh,

as all flesh,
is proud of its wounds, wears them
as honors given out after battle,
small triumphs pinned to the chestโ€”

And when two people have loved each other
see how it is like a
scar between their bodies,
stronger, darker, and proud;
how the black cord makes of them a single fabric
that nothing can tear or mend.

Copyright Credit: Jane Hirshfield, "For What Binds Us" from Of Gravity & Angels. Copyright ยฉ 1988 by Jane Hirshfield and reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press.
Source: Of Gravity & Angels (Wesleyan University Press, 1988)

Encuentros virtuales en vivo: Sรกbado 21 de septiembre, 13:00 EST

Nos reunimos cinco personas desde Nueva York, Espaรฑa y Argentina. Trabajamos la traducciรณn del poema โ€œWhy I hate Raisinsโ€, de Natalie Diaz, traducido por Olga Lucia Torres. 

En el poema se dan la mano el principio y el final; la primera lรญnea no se entiende hasta la รบltima lรญnea. Versos que se oponen: amor-odio.

Se comentรณ que es una niรฑa-cachorro, que lo come todo, no guarda para el dรญa siguiente. Se hablรณ de la diferencia entre apetito y hambre. El apetito provoca una respuesta voluntaria, controlada. El hambre no se controla, se come de golpe, no se piensan en las consecuencias.

El poema nos recordรณ las historias personales y familiares relacionadas con la carestรญa.

El poema gira en torno de la relaciรณn con el hambre en la relaciรณn entre madre e hija. Impresiona de que no hay comprensiรณn entre ambas.

Hablamos de la percepciรณn de la diferencia: nosotros frente a los otros. Y de la percepciรณn de la miseria.

La comida se convierte en el medio de vincularse y las emociones se materializan en la relaciรณn con la comida. La comida establece las relaciones.

La propuesta de escritura era: Escribe sobre un objeto pequeรฑo de gran significado. Escribimos sobre los objetos que (nos) unen a personas a travรฉs del tiempo. Y sobre el tiempo que es tambiรฉn un objeto pequeรฑo.  Descubrimos que los objetos guardan vidas y que nos mantienen unidos a los otros.

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 de Natalie Diaz.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: El sรกbado 26 octubre a las 13 hrs. o a la 1 pm EDT. Tambiรฉn, ofrecemos sesiones en inglรฉs. Ve a nuestra pรกgina de sesiones grupales virtuales.

ยกEsperamos verte pronto!


Por quรฉ odio las pasas por Natalie Diaz

ยฟY es sรณlo la boca y el vientre los que estรกn
heridos por el hambre y la sed?
-Mencio

Amor es una libra de pasas pegajosas
empaquetadas apretadas en cajas gubernamentales
blancas y negras el dรญa que no tenรญamos
comestibles. Le dije a mi mamรก que tenรญa hambre.
Ella me dio toda la caja brillante.
USDA estampado como un puรฑo en el lateral.
Me las comรญ todas en diez minutos. Comรญ
Demasiados, demasiado rรกpido. No pasรณ mucho tiempo
antes de que esas viejas uvas se asentaran como arcilla
negra en el fondo de mi barriga
haciรฉndola doler e hincharse.

Me quejรฉ, odio las pasas.
Sรณlo querรญa un sรกndwich como los demรกs niรฑos.
Bueno, eso es todo lo que tenemos, suspirรณ mi mรกma.
ยฟY quรฉ otros niรฑos?
Todos menos yo, le dije.
Ella dijo: Te refieres a los niรฑos blancos.
ยฟQuieres ser una niรฑa blanca?
Pues quรฉ pena, porque tรบ eres mi hija.
Yo gritรฉ: โ€œAl menos a los niรฑos blancos les dan un sรกndwichโ€.
Al menos los niรฑos blancos no se cagan.
 
Fue entonces cuando me dio una bofetada. Me dejรณ
tapรกndome la boca y el estรณmago-
devorado por la vergรผenza.
Todavรญa odio las pasas,
pero no por lรญneas de mercancรญas torcidas
que hacรญamos para conseguirlas, serpenteando
alrededor y en el gimnasio de la tribal.
No por las incรณmodas cajas de cartรณn
en las que las llevรกbamos a casa. Ni por la diarrea que causaban
ni por cรณmo distendรญan mi barriga.
Odio las pasas porque ahora sรฉ
que mi madre tambiรฉn tenรญa hambre ese dรญa,
y me comรญ todas las pasas.

 

Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT September 20th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem “Stripping and Putting On” by May Swenson, posted below.

Our prompt was:ย โ€œWrite about putting on light, like clothes.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 September 27th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Stripping and Putting On by May Swenson

I always felt like a bird blown through the world.
I never felt like a tree.

I never wanted a patch of this earth to stand in,
that would stick to me.

I wanted to move by whatever throb my muscles
sent to me.

I never cared for cars, that crawled on land or
air or sea.

If I rode, I'd rather another animal: horse, camel,
or shrewd donkey.

Never needed a nest, unless for the night, or when
winter overtook me.

Never wanted an extra skin between mine and the sun,
for vanity or modesty.

Would rather not have parents, had no yen for a child,
and never felt brotherly.

But I'd borrow or lend love of friend. Let friend be
not stronger or weaker than me.

Never hankered for Heaven, or shield from a Hell,
or played with the puppets Devil and Deity.

I never felt proud as one of the crowd under
the flag of a country.

Or felt that my genes were worth more or less than beans,
by accident of ancestry.

Never wished to buy or sell. I would just as well
not touch money.

Never wanted to own a thing that wasn't I born with.
Or to act by a fact not discovered by me.

I always felt like a bird blown through the world.
But I would like to lay

the egg of a world in a nest of calm beyond
this world's storm and decay.

I would like to own such wings as light speeds on,
far from this globule of night and day.

I would like to be able to put on, like clothes,
the bodies of all those

creatures and things hatched under the wings
of that world.

"Stripping and Putting On" by May Swenson, from Nature: Poems Old and New. ยฉ Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000. Reprinted with permission.

Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT September 13th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at the piece Attached to My Adhesion” by Eugenie Lee, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about a scar.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 September 20th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Attached to My Adhesion by Eugenie Lee

Credit: Eugenie Lee


Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT August 9th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem Bone Appendix” by Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach, posted below.

Our prompt was:ย โ€œWrite a letter about growing pains to yourย child self.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 September 13th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Bone Appendix byย Julia Kolchinsky Dasbach

After Alexandra Petrova

Trace your sonโ€™s left hand
against construction paper
with a nontoxic marker,

teaching him the edges
of his bones. Then fill
the space between

with what shines
or powders, glitter,
crushed cheerios, flecks

of skin even, teaching him
his bones remain
in spite of it. Let him try

to fit his fingers in the contours,
teaching him his bones
keep growing. And when

he makes two fists, afraid
his body canโ€™t keep up
with whatโ€™s inside, clenching

hard as teeth to keep his bones
just as they are, to keep them
from sprouting out, tell him

of โ€ŠUkraineโ€™s oldest apple tree
that grows its branches
low into the ground

until they drink the soilโ€”
an indiscernible colony
of roots or eternally new trees.

And when he falls
asleep pressed to your chest,
trace his right hand

against the tree-house
rib cage it first grew, teaching him
the endlessness of bones.

Source: Poetry (December 2019)

Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT July 29th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem Blue Velvet” by Eileen Chong , posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about shoes to walk in another world.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 August 9th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Blue Velvet by Eileen Chong

I bought her those shoes. I was the only one
who ever bought her shoes. I knew her
size. I knew what she liked. Sheโ€™d always
picked on me, but I was the only one
who ever bought her shoes
in her size that she liked.

She had told her oldest son
that when death called
for her, she wanted to be wearing
those shoes. He said
they were house slippers, too flimsy
for her walk in the other world.

Yet in the end, afraid, he gave me
the shoes โ€“ hand-embroidered
with phoenixes decked out
in sequins, gold thread, green
beads for eyes โ€“ I sheathed
the old ladyโ€™s cold, rigid feet.

Thank god I had bought them
in blue, not red. She would not
have been allowed to be buried
in anything red. Not unless we wanted her
to come back from the dead, shuffling
in those slippers, going to the courtyard
to beat the nightโ€™s blankets
in the dawning sun.

Credit: Eileen Chong


Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT July 26th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at the painting The Smoke” by Matthew Wong, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about being lost in deep thought.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 29th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

The Smoke by Matthew Wong

Credit: Matthew Wong