DAY 1 – #morningcoffeesessions
I’ve joined a writer’s group through the fabulous Firefly Creative Writing. I’ve always dreamed of participating in writing with the Firefly family. Apparently, it takes a pandemic to get me there. So be it. There were over 140 of us from near and far, coffee or tea or water nearby, paper and pen or laptop at the ready.
We started by hearing the soft gentle voice of Chris as she welcomed us and then shared Mary Oliver‘s ‘Wild Geese’ poem. She read it twice then we wrote based on a line or a feeling that the poem inspired.
Here is what I wrote:
new alone
there is a place
for me in the alone
it waits
wonders when I will return
to its graceful generous
confines
these days I can be
in a room alone but
I am not alone
these days i am told
to isolate … yet
it is more like insulate
squeezed and held by
the art-covered walls
the dog kisses
the kid arms
the lover embrace
all good things…yet
my soul yearns for
a specific emptiness
this time does not allow
that I would never request
because love says
now is for together
love says this new
alone is different
the best constant
is to love
within the limits of
our family unit
in the safety of
our family home
in the privilege of
the gathered things
I do not have to feel
guilty for
there is a place for me
in the alone
it waits for me
wonders when i will
return to its graceful generous
confines
expects that i will
be different
a garden still but…
growing different gifts
a me sprouting roots from
my soul that weren’t
there before
perhaps there will be
a gentle homecoming
a pitter patter of palms
uniting for my return
an announcement
in the space of
a new alone
a new me
there is a rhythm of want
for that specific emptiness –
for a furthering
that can give me
space to take off my skin
lay it in the sun
dry its tears
We’ll be writing together every morning. I’ll be sharing what I write…in an effort to promote Firefly, and to share my writing…and my emotional journey that’s an effer of a journey shifting sometimes every hour. This morning I was yearning for alone. The kind of alone where I am physically and emotionally alone….and trying to figure out what that means in the face of this pandemic that is truly a mirror being held up for each of us to face our deepest selves…if we care to look that deeply within.
Keep writing. Keep sharing. Keep loving. Be kind.
VANESSA SHIELDS, writer 