time – WRITING INSIDE VT

It’s been a while since we posted a ‘found poem’ created by lines of women’s writing from a previous circle.

In this case, the lines were gathered at our ‘public’ reading of a number of pieces from several months. Therefore the theme is one created by the proximity of lines to one another and their entirety, rather than being in response to a particular prompt.

Behind me must be forgotten –
addiction, The Devil
critical of my hair
untamed, unhinged;
cupid’s careless arrow
plucked from the sky
swatting the air thick with
trust, love, hope and dreams
vulnerable to the game;
thinking there’s no danger is absurd. Continue reading →

Last Thursday evening as I was leaving the prison late, I experienced one of those moments that touches a place almost too deep for words.

I happened to look through several layers of glass into a distant room. And there, standing a bit to one side in conversation, stood one of ‘my’ writers. She hasn’t written with us in our weekly writing circles for some time – she’s been on an emotional roller coaster for a while. Yet every time she HAS joined us, her writing has been powerful, raw, and (according to her own words) more valuable than any counseling session — because of the depth and immediacy of shared experience. She always thanked me for coming and appeared genuinely grateful for the chance to reflect on and learn from herself and others in the group.

Our eyes connected. I put my hand to my heart, patting a soft fist against my chest two to three times in a gesture I reserve for those I most care for, nodding as I did so with a smile. And SHE crossed both arms over HER chest, holding my gaze with tender intensity as her own head nodded ever so slightly.

The compassion that can pass through time, space, even glass prison walls – not to mention the enormous divide between us in terms of where we are in our lives . . . !

THIS is good work indeed.