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


Encuentros virtuales en vivo: Sรกbado 20 de junio, 13:00 EDT

Nos reunimos 8 personas desde Nueva York, California, Argentina, y las Islas Canarias.

Analizamos la obra โ€œInterior with Womanโ€, arte digital de Inge Schuster

Una de las participantes contรณ que veรญa el cuadro como un proceso de mirada hacia dentro y hacia fuera a la vez, porque la pintura en la pared no es un espejo sino otra mirada. Tambiรฉn los colores llaman la atenciรณn. El dibujo es la reflexiรณn hacia el infinito. Otro participante lo vio como tรฉtrico, como una alumna en una celda de convento. Es una meditaciรณn que no lleva a ningรบn lugar, no hay escapatoria. Lo poco que habita es gris. Evoca a Magritte. Ambiente cerrado, opresivo, pequeรฑo. Invita a pensar en un cuadro que โ€œdibujaโ€ una depresiรณn.

Un participante vio la cama de la pรฉrdida, falta alguien en la habitaciรณn, alguien que ya no estรก. Otro participante apreciรณ que la sucesiรณn de cuadros podrรญa significar la sucesiรณn de las generaciones familiares.

La imagen hizo surgir mรบltiples significados, historias y perspectivas. Debatimos sobre las diferentes posibilidades de la historia. Y esas historias tenรญan raรญz en nuestras experiencias previas. Se mencionรณ que predomina el espacio.

Propusimos para escribir โ€œEscribe sobre un tiempo de auto-reflexiรณnโ€. Escribimos sobre lo que significa โ€œreflexionarโ€ y los momentos de reflexiรณn que nos da la vida. La auto-reflexiรณn como cita forzosa, obligada. Pero tambiรฉn sobre historias, y dolor. Los modos en que llegamos a la reflexiรณn y los lugares que nos invitan a ella.

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 arte digital de Inge Schuster. Pero antes, les recomendamos tener en cuenta que el blog es un espacio pรบblico donde, por supuesto, no se garantiza la confidencialidad.

Inge Schuster De la serie: โ€œInterior with Womanโ€ (Interior con Mujer)

Credit: Inge Schuster


Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT July 19th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem When We Were Whales ” by Stan Heleva, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about turning suffering into song.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 26th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

When We Were Whales by Stan Heleva

We knew nothing of the legs we had shed
As we swam in the Peruvian desert
Nor how they had become unnecessary
Not an inkling of immanent return had we, nor again why.

We had only silent ballet, no music
Turning ourselves over in the murky sun
Only to dart in to tear more flesh from our fellows
Our tusks glinting dully, our beards stained with blood.

Our name, Leviathan Melvillei, was unknown to us
And might have remained so for all the good
It has done dead whale or dead poet: we had no tune I repeat
We taught them only to cry in pain; they made of it a song.

Credit: Stan Heleva & Michelle Paul
From Michelle Paulsโ€™ Forthcoming play, โ€œItโ€™s Complicatedโ€ฆ.This Gift of Life.โ€

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

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem Before” by Ada Limรณn, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about a time before.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 19th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Before by Ada Limรณn

No shoes and a glossy
red helmet, I rode
on the back of my dadโ€™s
Harley at seven years old.
Before the divorce.
Before the new apartment.
Before the new marriage.
Before the apple tree.
Before the ceramics in the garbage.
Before the dogโ€™s chain.
Before the koi were all eaten
by the crane. Before the road
between us, there was the road
beneath us, and I was just
big enough not to let go:
Henno Road, creek just below,
rough wind, chicken legs,
and I never knew survival
was like that. If you live,
you look back and beg
for it again, the hazardous
bliss before you know
what you would miss.

Copyright ยฉ 2015 by Ada Limรณn. Used with permission of the author.

Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT June 24th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem The Youngย ” by Roddy Lumsden, posted below.

Our prompt was:ย โ€œWrite about being young.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 July 12th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

"The Youngย " by Roddy Lumsden

You bastards! Itโ€™s all sherbet, and follyย ย ย 
makes you laugh like mules. Chancesย ย ย 
dance off your wrists, each day ready,

sprites in your bones and spite not yetย ย ย 
swollen, not yet set. You gather handfulย ย ย 
after miracle handful, seeing straight,

reaching the lighthouse in record time,ย ย ย 
pockets brim with scimitar things. Nowย ย ย 
is not a pinpoint but a sprawling realm.

Bewilderment and thrill are whip-quickย ย ย 
twins, carried on your backs, each vowย ย ย 
new to touch and each mistake a broken

biscuit. I was you. Sea robber boardingย ย ย 
the won galleon. Roaring trees. Machinesย ย ย 
without levers, easy in bowel and lung.

One cartwheel over the quicksand curveย ย ย 
of Tuesday to Tuesday and youโ€™re gone,ย ย ย 
summering, a ship on the farthest wave.

Credit:ย Poetryย (December 2008)

Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT June 21st 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem Against Distance” by Trey Moody, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about being one and many.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 June 24th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

Against Distance by Trey Moody

I donโ€™t know who needs to hear this

other than me, but the moon will never leave

you, you are good enough for the moon

and the moon is good enough for you,

because you are here and the moon is there

every time the moon is supposed to be

there, and isnโ€™t it interesting when we want

to show up for each other we say we are

counting on it and what else but numbers

teach us we are each one, and what else

but the moon teaches us we are each many,

so when you try counting โ€Šyour remaining

moments with the moon, the moon

that will never, ever leave you, give up.

Even the moon inches a little more distant

every year. Iโ€™ve heard grief is only love

with nowhere to go. But then you look up.

Credit:ย Poetryย (May 2024)


Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT June 3rd 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session took a close look at a self-portrait painting by Filippo Balbi, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œIn my head...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 21st at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.


Self-portrait painting by Filippo Balbi

Credit: Filippo Balbi


Encuentros virtuales en vivo: Sรกbado 1 de junio, 13:00 EDT

Nos reunimos 7 personas desde Nueva York, California, Espaรฑa, Chile, y Argentina. Leรญmos el cuento Volver, del libro de las Ex-Cusas (2018), Antonio Gonzรกlez Croissier.

Un participante mencionรณ la palabra que mรกs se repite es โ€œvolverโ€. Para volver hay que salir. Aunque parece que uno va para adelante, la vida es una recta. Volver es siempre una entrada, aunque llega la muerta. La metรกfora de las hojas calendase al piso. Ahรญ se mueren. El tiempo pasa y cambia todo. De poquito uno cambia hasta que uno ya no estรก.

Otra persona le gusto la contradicciรณn en el texto. La duda del autor o protagonista al regresar a lugares del pasado. Se los dejas al leyente.

Para otra participante el texto no es de envejecer per de tomar decisiones en nuestras vidas. Se menciona que la caja negra es donde uno tiene nuestros secretos. Es dejarla atrรกs. Buscar a nuestros seres queridos, a los lugares del pasado.

El autor es bastante optimista al frente tanta oscuridad. Un abrazo, el calor de una chimenea. Es una receta para el mundo que estaos en guerra.

A otra persona le recuerda cuando alguien ha estado afuera un gran tiempo y regresa y nunca es como una pensaba.

Los textos se leen con nuestras experiencias y para otra persona lo mรกs importante es el descubrir a lo que ya dejaste. Las cosas han cambiado. Uno no es el mismo y el lugar no es el mismo.

Es un texto rico con mรบltiples perspectivas y miradas que abordar.

La propuesta de escritura que usamos fue: Escribe sobre un regreso. Los textos fueron construidos en la sombra del texto. Se escribiรณ de regresos a lugares, mascotas, experiencias, nosotros mismos, y hasta el cielo.

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. 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 julio a las 20 hrs. o a la 1 pm EDT. Tambiรฉn, ofrecemos sesiones en inglรฉs. Ve a nuestra pรกgina de sesiones grupales virtuales.

ยกEsperamos verte pronto!


Volver. El libro de las Ex-Cusas (2018) por Antonio Gonzรกlez Croissier

Volver es siempre una salida, una calle ancha por la que asoma el reloj del viejo campanario o la fuente de la plaza. Atrรกs quedan los lugares desconocidos y las miradas extraรฑas.
Volver es como bajar del invierno mientras las manos juegan con el calor en los bolsillos, como ser hoja y despeรฑarse con esa forma tan poรฉtica que tienen de alcanzar el suelo.
Volver es envejecer, dar la vuelta, rendirse, dejar la vida a un lado, cerrar la caja negra de la existencia, tirar la llave y arrastrar lo que pudo haber sido.
O quizรก no, quizรก volver es buscar un abrazo, una chimenea encendida, una mirada cรณmplice al otro lado de cualquier cosa, una conversaciรณn sencilla sobre la รบltima cosecha o lo mal que nos sienta el cafรฉ de la noche.
ยฟVolver?ยฟSe puede volver acaso? Cuando la campana ya no suena como lo hacรญa y el agua de la plaza no burbujea como antes.
ยฟAcaso se puede volver cuando el que regresa ya no es el mismo?

Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EDT May 20th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we took a close look at the music video The Great Escape” by Patrick Watson, posted below.

Our prompt was: โ€œWrite about an escape.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 June 3rd at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.

The Great Escape” by Patrick Watson


Live Virtual Group Session: 12PM EDT May 17th 2024

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem “Who Says the Eye Loves Symmetry” by Patrick Rosal, posted below.

Our prompt was:ย โ€œWriteย about the beauty within asymmetry.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 May 20th at 6pm EDT, with more times listed on ourย Live Virtual Group Sessions.

"Who Says the Eye Loves Symmetry" by Patrick Rosal

Doesnโ€™t the eye love the ragged
tear of sky the treetop-shred
horizon The eyeโ€” after allโ€”
loves the dizzy
dip of a road: its precarious
tilt towards a ravine
only wrist-deep water
and giant smooth rocks to break
the skyโ€™s fall The eye
loves the bit peach window agape
buildings caught mid-swagger across a skyline
The eye loves unpainted pickets
cracked planks the harlequin the prow
poked out of water
like a chin loves
the evergreen arched over a flood
like an old man looking into the street
for a hand loves a sawed link chewed
rope a birchโ€™s slants But
the eye canโ€™t
love what it canโ€™t
see: the woman
striding tired and brave amid the lobbyโ€™s bustle
and under her shirt
a single breast
For Maureen Clyne

Patrick Rosal
Who Says the Eye Loves Symmetry is reprinted from Uprock Headspin Scramble and Dive (Persea Books, 2003) and originally appeared in Uncommon Denominators (Palanquin Press, 2000).
Poem, copyright ยฉ 2000 by Patrick Rosal
Appearing on From the Fishouse with permission
Audio file, copyright ยฉ 2005, From the Fishouse