Meg Weston & Jane Pirone offered a session on May 30.
Meg Weston leads writing retreats connected to geological hot spots such as Iceland, Hawaii, and other places around the world. Meg is a photographer, poet and non-fiction writer who is passionate about the forces that shape the earth and the stories that shape our lives.
Jane Pirone’s creative and transdisciplinary practice engages with living systems, storytelling, and participatory futures from critical, queer and post-human perspectives. Jane is on the faculty of Parsons School of Design and leads international workshops.
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Here Lies Hamm
by Shelley Wagner
Under the soft sounds of children humming
Fingers digging, kitchen spoons flashing in the sun
A hole the size of a fist is chopped into the loamy soil.
The poor hamster, named Hamm, is rolled onto tissue
— not breathing —and carried like this
in a pinched sling that looks like a hammock.
Fitted and tucked into folded white layers,
Its fur body is touched; the neck, the head,
the eyes —stuck permanently staring, and
the teeth protruding not straight, but bent
and shining like the tusks of a wild boar charging.
Then at the end, the dirt, dry from drought, and barely rising
To form a mount in need of a stone and
two sticks are crosses, fixed with a rubber band
and draped in blue with forget-me-not-flowers.
Under the soft heads of children sobbing, heads nodding,
Hands patting at the dirt, or held together praying, or
Holding the pencil
The pencil is twitching with words:
“Here Lies Hamm”
Thank you for joining us to Write Around the World!
For the rest of the summer, watch our blog! We are sharing writing from AWA’s yearly marathon fundraiser, which happened this year all-online throughout the month of May.
We offer this series in appreciation for the incredible community of writers and workshop leaders that sustain us. If you’re inspired and would like to be part of the fundraiser, please donate!