Live Virtual Group Session: 6pm EDT June 7th 2021

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

Our text for this session was an excerpt fromย โ€œInvisible Citiesโ€ by Italo Calvino,ย posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: โ€œWrite about a fascinating absence.โ€

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

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 sessionย Wednesday June 9th at 12pm EDT,ย with more times listed on ourย Live Virtual Group Sessionsย page.


After a seven daysโ€™ march through woodland, the traveler directed toward Baucis cannot see the city and yet he has arrived. The slender stilts that rise from the ground at a great distance from one another and are lost above the clouds support the city. You climb them with ladders. On the ground the inhabitants rarely show themselves: having already everything they need up there, they prefer not to come down. Nothing of the city touches the earth except those long flamingo legs on which it rests and, when the days are sunny, a pierced, angular shadow that falls on the foliage.

         These are three hypotheses about the inhabitants of Baucis: that they hate the earth; that they respect the earth so much that they avoid all contact; that they love it as it was before they existed and with spyglasses and telescopes aimed downward they never tire of examining it, leaf by leaf, stone by stone, ant by ant, contemplating with fascination their own absence.

Cities and Eyes (Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, pg. 77)


Encuentros virtuales en vivo: Sรกbado 5 de Junio, 13:00 EST (17:00 UTC)

Tuvimos una muy divertida sesiรณn en espaรฑol. Atendieron 9 participantes en total, representando a estados locales (incluyendo California y Nueva York y otros paรญses (incluyendo Argentina, Espaรฑa, Chile, y Colombia).

Hicimos una lectura atenta del poema โ€œBesosโ€ de Gabriela Mistral. La complejidad del poema despertรณ mรบltiples lecturas en los participantes. Lo primero que notamos fue que el poema habla de dos tipos de besosโ€”uno conceptual sin sujeto y el otro personal, indefinible. La dualidad de los dos besos. Mirando mรกs a cerca al poema, una participante comentรณ que hay el beso bueno, el beso malo, el beso traicionero, el beso mรกs complicado, el mรกs turbulento, y el que no se debe de dar. En buscando el por quรฉ del poema, alguien notรณ que la autora demuestra mucha agonรญa y despecho hacia otra persona. Al final parece como manipulaciรณn: โ€œyo te enseรฑรฉ a besarโ€ y โ€œsangre en mis labiosโ€. Otra persona notรณ que hay mucho para analizar en el poema en tan corto tiempo. Y al final estรกn las dos preguntas pidiรฉndole al otro si se recuerda. Un participante preguntรณ, ยฟcuรกles de estas experiencias he vivido yo?

La parte que causo la mayorรญa de conversaciรณn fue la sรฉptima estrofa:

Judas besa a Jesรบs y deja impresa
en su rostro de Dios, la felonรญa,
mientras la Magdalena con sus besos
fortifica piadosa su agonรญa.

Las primeras estrofas tienen estructura parecida, pero se interrumpe cuando el poema menciona a Judas y Magdalena. A una participante le pareciรณ esta comparaciรณn disonante. Otra persona notรณ que la que es piadosa es Magdalena; contraste de lo bueno y de lo malo. Aun otro participante mencionรณ que esta estrofa es fuera de tema, รกspera. El elemento disonante del pรกrrafo de Judas y Magdalena afectรณ y molestรณ a muchos participantes. Alguien notรณ que para ella era porque la traiciรณn de Jesus cuesta la vida, despuรฉs lo que le pasa Judas, y la agonรญa de Magdalena. Aun otro participante mencionรณ que esta estrofa surge inesperadamente y hay que subjetivarlo. Otra persona dijo que en la opiniรณn de ella, hay que objetivar la imagen de Jesus. Muchos estaban de acuerdo que esta estrofa marca el quiebre de la segunda parte del poema y esta fuera del tono emocional del poema. Todos estuvimos de acuerdo que la traiciรณn es la parte mas trรกgica que puede traer el beso.

La propuesta de escritura fue โ€œEscribe sobre un besoโ€. Algunos participantes compartieron sus textos, muchos de los cuales estaban en la sombra del texto. Alguien le puso tรญtulo a su escritura, โ€œEl Ultimo Besoโ€ y hablaba del beso como, โ€œinstrumento de la muerteโ€. Otra persona escribiรณ de โ€œaquel beso [que] no valiรณ la pena.โ€ Uno sabe la intenciรณn de nuestro beso, pero no la intenciรณn de la otra persona. Otra participante escribiรณ del lenguaje del amor sin palabras y de la incertidumbre del beso. Se escribiรณ de todos los placeres y problemas que nos pueden traer los besos. Hubo ademรกs comentarios y observaciones muy detalladas que generaron un buen intercambio. ยกSin duda, se hizo corto el tiempo!  

Se alienta a las/los participantes a compartir lo que escribieron a continuaciรณn (โ€œDeja una respuestaโ€), para mantener la conversaciรณn aquรญ, teniendo en cuenta que el blog, por supuesto, es un espacio pรบblico donde no se garantiza la confidencialidad.

Por favor, รบnase a nosotros para nuestra prรณxima sesiรณn en espaรฑol: Sรกbado, 26 de junio a las 13:00 EST, con mรกs veces listadas en inglรฉs en nuestra pรกgina deย sesiones grupales virtuales en vivo.

ยกEsperamos verte pronto!


โ€œBesosโ€ por Gabriela Mistral 

Hay besos que pronuncian por sรญ solos
la sentencia de amor condenatoria,
hay besos que se dan con la mirada
hay besos que se dan con la memoria.

Hay besos silenciosos, besos nobles
hay besos enigmรกticos, sinceros
hay besos que se dan sรณlo las almas
hay besos por prohibidos, verdaderos.

Hay besos que calcinan y que hieren,
hay besos que arrebatan los sentidos,
hay besos misteriosos que han dejado
mil sueรฑos errantes y perdidos.

Hay besos problemรกticos que encierran
una clave que nadie ha descifrado,
hay besos que engendran la tragedia
cuantas rosas en broche han deshojado.

Hay besos perfumados, besos tibios
que palpitan en รญntimos anhelos,
hay besos que en los labios dejan huellas
como un campo de sol entre dos hielos.

Hay besos que parecen azucenas
por sublimes, ingenuos y por puros,
hay besos traicioneros y cobardes,
hay besos maldecidos y perjuros.


Judas besa a Jesรบs y deja impresa
en su rostro de Dios, la felonรญa,
mientras la Magdalena con sus besos
fortifica piadosa su agonรญa.

Desde entonces en los besos palpita
el amor, la traiciรณn y los dolores,
en las bodas humanas se parecen
a la brisa que juega con las flores.

Hay besos que producen desvarรญos
de amorosa pasiรณn ardiente y loca,
tรบ los conoces bien son besos mรญos
inventados por mรญ, para tu boca.

Besos de llama que en rastro impreso
llevan los surcos de un amor vedado,
besos de tempestad, salvajes besos
que solo nuestros labios han probado.

ยฟTe acuerdas del primero...? Indefinible;
cubriรณ tu faz de cรกrdenos sonrojos
y en los espasmos de emociรณn terrible,
llenรกronse de lรกgrimas tus ojos.

ยฟTe acuerdas que una tarde en loco exceso
te vi celoso imaginando agravios,
te suspendรญ en mis brazos... vibrรณ un beso,
y quรฉ viste despuรฉs...? Sangre en mis labios.

Yo te enseรฑรฉ a besar: los besos frรญos
son de impasible corazรณn de roca,
yo te enseรฑรฉ a besar con besos mรญos
inventados por mรญ, para tu boca.


Live Virtual Group Session: 12pm EDT June 4th 2021

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

Our text for this session was the short filmย โ€œThe Gatherersโ€ featuring violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins and actor Daniel J. Watts,ย posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: โ€œWrite about sharing space.โ€

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

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 sessionย Monday June 7th at 6pm EDT,ย with more times listed on ourย Live Virtual Group Sessionsย page.



Live Virtual Group Session: 12pm EDT May 28th 2021

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

Our text for this session was the poemย โ€œSong for the Turtles in the Gulfโ€ byย Linda Hogan,ย posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: โ€œWrite about secret importance.โ€

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

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 sessionย Friday June 4th at 12pm EDT,ย with more times listed on ourย Live Virtual Group Sessionsย page.


โ€œSong for the Turtles in the Gulfโ€ byย Linda Hogan

We had been together so very long,
you willing to swim with me
just last month, myself merely small
in the ocean of splendor and light,
the reflections and distortions of us,
and now when I see the man from British Petroleum
lift you up dead from the plastic
bin of death,
he with a smile, you burned
and covered with red-black oil, torched
and pained, all I can think is that I loved your life,
the very air you exhaled when you rose,
old great mother, the beautiful swimmer,
the mosaic growth of shell
so detailed, no part of you
simple, meaningless,
or able to be created
by any human,
only destroyed.
How can they learn
the secret importance
of your beaten heart,
the eyes of another intelligence
than ours, maybe greater,
with claws, flippers, plastron.
Forgive us for being thrown off true,
for our trespasses,
in the eddies of the water
where we first walked.


Copyright ยฉ 2014 by Linda Hogan. 
From Dark. Sweet.: New and Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2014). 

Live Virtual Group Session: 6pm EDT May 24th 2021

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

Our text for this session was the poem โ€œNothing Wants to Sufferโ€ by Danusha Lamรฉris, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: โ€œWrite what the stars see while looking down.โ€

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

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 28th at 12pm EDT, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions page.


โ€œNothing Wants to Sufferโ€ by Danusha Lamรฉris

Nothing wants to suffer. Not the wind
as it scrapes itself against the cliff. Not the cliff

being eaten, slowly, by the sea. The earth does not want
to suffer the rough tread of those who do not notice it.

The trees do not want to suffer the axe, nor see
their sisters felled by root rot, mildew, rust. 

The coyote in its den. The puma stalking its prey.
These, too, want ease and a tender animal in the mouth

to take their hunger. An offering, one hopes, 
made quickly, and without much suffering.

The chair mourns an angry sitter. The lamp, a scalded moth.
A table, the weight of years of argument.

We know this, though we forget.

Not the shark nor the tiger, fanged as they are.
Nor the worm, content in its windowless world

of soil and stone. Not the stone, resting in its riverbed.
The riverbed, gazing up at the stars.

Least of all, the stars, ensconced in their canopy,
looking down at all of usโ€” their offspringโ€”

scattered so far beyond reach.



Copyright ยฉ 2021 by Danusha Lamรฉris. 
Originally published in Poem-a-Day on April 9, 2021, 
by the Academy of American Poets.

Live Virtual Group Session: 6pm EDT May 17th 2021

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

Our text for this session was the poemย โ€œThey Don’t Love You Like I Love Youโ€ byย Natalie Diaz, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: โ€œWrite about wait or weight.โ€

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

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 sessionย Monday May 24th at 6pm EDT,ย with more times listed on ourย Live Virtual Group Sessionsย page.


They Don't Love You Like I Love You
by Natalie Diaz

My mother said this to me
long before Beyoncรฉ lifted the lyrics
from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs,

and what my mother meant by
Donโ€™t stray was that she knew
all about itโ€”the way it feels to need

someone to love you, someone
not your kind, someone white,
some one some many who live

because so many of mine
have not, and further, live on top of
those of ours who donโ€™t.

Iโ€™ll say, say, say,
Iโ€™ll say, say, say,
What is the United States if not a clot

of clouds? If not spilled milk? Or blood?
If not the place we once were
in the millions? America is Mapsโ€”

Maps are ghosts: white and 
layered with people and places I see through.
My mother has always known best,

knew that Iโ€™d been begging for them,
to lay my face against their white
laps, to be held in something more

than the loud light of their projectors
of themselves they flickerโ€”sepia
or blueโ€”all over my body.

All this time,
I thought my mother said, Wait,
as in, Give them a little more time

to know your worth,
when really, she said, Weight,
meaning heft, preparing me

for the yoke of myself,
the beast of my countryโ€™s burdens,
which is less worse than

my countryโ€™s plow. Yes,
when my mother said,
They donโ€™t love you like I love you,

she meant,
Natalie, that doesnโ€™t mean
you arenโ€™t good.

 

 


*The italicized words, 
with the exception of the final stanza, 
come from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs song "Maps."

Copyright ยฉ 2019 by Natalie Diaz. 
Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 20, 2019, 
by the Academy of American Poets.

Encuentros virtuales en vivo: Sรกbado 15 de Mayo, 13:00 EST (17:00 UTC)

Leรญmos un fragmento de Arrugas by Paco Roca.

“Escribe sobre un momento en el que la realidad fue diferente.”

Se alienta a las/los participantes a compartir lo que escribieron a continuaciรณn (โ€œDeja una respuestaโ€), para mantener la conversaciรณn aquรญ, teniendo en cuenta que el blog, por supuesto, es un espacio pรบblico donde no se garantiza la confidencialidad.

Por favor, รบnase a nosotros para nuestra prรณxima sesiรณn en espaรฑol: a definir, con mรกs veces listadas en inglรฉs en nuestra pรกgina deย sesiones grupales virtuales en vivo.

ยกEsperamos verte pronto!



Live Virtual Group Session: 12pm EDT May 12th 2021

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

For this session we gathered to observe the visual art pieceย โ€œSwiss Made (Edition 2)โ€ byย Vaclac Pozarek, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: โ€œWrite about seeking balance.โ€

Vaclac Pozarek is a Czech-born artist who has been living and working in Switzerland since the late 1960s. The richness and diversity of his body of work is evident in the various media he chooses to work with: primarily drawing and sculpture, but also collaging, photography, scenography and exhibition design, and book design. In his visual artwork and installations, Pozarek tries to find points of contact between art and everyday objects; ceaselessly querying the ways in which art is presented to us. His graphic work underlines his fascination with typography and architecture, calling to mind building plans and architectural faรงade embellishments. His research combines the principles of Constructivism, concrete art, and Minimalism; creating a unique synthesis of these distinctive movements.

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

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 sessionย Monday May 17th at 6pm EDT,ย with more times listed on ourย Live Virtual Group Sessionsย page.


Swiss Made (Edition 2), 2019

Wood, transparent colour; piece in two parts
37.8 x 27.56 x 27.56 in ( 96 x 70 x 70 cm )
Unique
Swiss Made (Edition 2), 2019

Wood, transparent colour; piece in two parts
37.8 x 27.56 x 27.56 in ( 96 x 70 x 70 cm )
Unique
Vaclac Pozarek is a Czech-born artist who has been living and working in Switzerland since the late 1960s. The richness and diversity of his body of work is evident in the various media he chooses to work with: primarily drawing and sculpture, but also collaging, photography, scenography and exhibition design, and book design. In his visual artwork and installations, Pozarek tries to find points of contact between art and everyday objects; ceaselessly querying the ways in which art is presented to us. His graphic work underlines his fascination with typography and architecture, calling to mind building plans and architectural faรงade embellishments. His research combines the principles of Constructivism, concrete art, and Minimalism; creating a unique synthesis of these distinctive movements.

https://www.mamco.ch/en/1504/Vaclav-Pozarek

Live Virtual Group Session: 6pm EDT May 10th 2021

Thank you to everyone who joined for this session!

Our text for this session was the poemย โ€œBreakageโ€ byย Mary Oliver, posted below.

Our prompt for this session was: “Write about the tattered or the whole.”

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

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 sessionย Wednesday May 12th at 12pm EDT,ย with more times listed on ourย Live Virtual Group Sessionsย page.


โ€œBreakageโ€ byย Mary Oliver,

I go down to the edge of the sea.
How everything shines in the morning light!
The cusp of the whelk,
the broken cupboard of the clam,
the opened, blue mussels,
moon snails, pale pink and barnacle scarredโ€”
and nothing at all whole or shut, but tattered, split,
dropped by the gulls onto the gray rocks and all the moisture gone.
It's like a schoolhouse
of little words,
thousands of words.
First you figure out what each one means by itself,
the jingle, the periwinkle, the scallop
       full of moonlight.

Then you begin, slowly, to read the whole story.


Source: Poetry (Poetry Foundation, 2003)

Laboratori Di Medicina Narrativa: sabato 8 Maggio dalle 16 alle 17.30

Siamo stati molto lieti di avervi qui con noi!

Abbiamo analizzato insieme il quadro Paris par la fenรชtre di Marc Chagall (1913), seguito dalla poesia Non basta aprire la finestra di Fernando Pessoa (entrambi allegati al termine di questa pagina).ย 

In seguito, abbiamo usato il prompt โ€œDalla mia finestra. . .โ€.

Condivideremo ulteriori dettagli della sessione nei prossimi giorni; vi invitiamo a rivisitare questa pagina in modo da continuare la nostra conversazione qui!

Invitiamo i partecipanti del laboratorio a condividere i propri scritti nella parte โ€œblogโ€ dedicata alla fine della presente pagina (โ€œLeave a Replyโ€). Speriamo di creare, attraverso questo forum di condivisione, uno spazio in cui continuare la nostra conversazione! Stiamo raccogliendo impressioni e breve feedback sui nostri laboratori di medicina narrativa su Zoom!

Questo breve questionario (anonimo, e aperto a chiunque abbia frequentato almeno un laboratorio) รจ molto importante per noi, e ci permetterร  di elaborare sul valore dei nostri laboratori e sul ruolo dello spazio per riflettere e metabolizzare il momento presente. Vi preghiamo quindi di condividere le nostre riflessioni con noi!


Paris par la fenรชtre di Marc Chagall (1913)
Non basta aprire la finestra di Fernando Pessoa

Non basta aprire la finestra
per vedere la campagna e il fiume.
Non basta non essere ciechi
per vedere gli alberi e i fiori.
Bisogna anche non aver nessuna filosofia.
Con la filosofia non vi sono alberi:
vi sono solo idee.
Vi รจ soltanto ognuno di noi,
simile ad una spelonca.
Cโ€™รจ solo una finestra chiusa
e tutto il mondo fuori;
e un sogno di ciรฒ che potrebbe esser visto
se la finestra si aprisse,
che mai รจ quello che si vede
quando la finestra si apre.