Summer Hardinge and Lisa Colburn offered an early group on April 18 and Summer led again on May 25th
Summer Hardinge, of Beyond Margins, and Lisa Colburn, of Market Street Writers, offered a special Write Around the World session for which the theme was, “In Praise of Poetry.”
One prompt offered was “you are standing at a corner” and the form was “the bop.” Another prompt was to write about one or more of these words that are both nouns and verbs: milk, cloud, storm, book, hammer, fuel, needle, rose, bomb, strike.
You’ll likely be able to tell which prompt inspired which piece below. Thanks to these writers for sharing their work with us and thanks to Summer and Lisa for their leadership!
If you’re inspired, please visit the workshop websites linked above to learn more about these two amazing leaders and your opportunities to write with them.
LOAVES* AND ROSES
by Martha K.S. Patrick, Gümüşlük Turkey
These go together for me – they have since I first heard Judy Collins sing “Bread and Roses,” a song I have listened to many times but not recently or enough.
“As we go marching, . . . . Yes, it is bread we fight for, but we fight for roses too.”
The sweet smell of freshly baking bread is one that brings me much comfort and delight. How many are the loaves I have baked over the years? In rushed times, quick breads like Weightwatchers Banana Chocolate Chip Loaf or Charlie Clotfelter’s Carrot Mandarin Orange Bread – to give as gifts and share with family and neighbors and writing friends. In more open days, sourdough or pumpernickel, lovingly kneaded, and my favorite, my grandmother Annie’s special squash yeast bread (or rolls)!
Roses are a different kind of favorite – their scent almost as precious to me as lily of the valley or frangipani or jasmine. What I love is seeing them grow wild, with buds in various stages all on the same plant – ones that are small buds, ones just opening, ones in full fragile bloom, next to those who are hanging on to just a few petals not yet ready to fall to the ground and be gone.
Both bread and roses are necessary for our spirits and our health. We find in them sustenance for body and soul and hope for the future. As the working women’s song says, “Hearts starve as well as bodies. Give us bread, but give us roses.”
What are we starving for? Love and beauty and a sense of a greater purpose than just today’s existence. As Baha’u’llah wrote,
“In the garden of thy heart, plant naught but the rose of love.”
*When I first heard the prompt as “loaves” not “rose,” I knew it was wrong, because “loaves” is not both noun and verb; but then bread and roses go together.
Penny Walk
by Laura Banks
When the boys were young and we lived on Hollow Glen,
we took penny walks. Eight-year old legs set the pace as some strolled,
some strollered. Nowhere to go but a world to discover.
Flipping a penny at each corner – heads right, tails left –
we’d follow a circuitous path until we found ourselves lost
or naps and snacks beckoned us home.
Just a flip of a coin – there’s no wrong turn.
Two decades of wandering later, legs seven leagues long,
the circumference of the world expands and shrinks beyond
the sweet diameter of Sunday afternoons. But it still works.
Grab the dog’s leash, the car keys, the job offers and take a penny walk.
Right turn, left turn, stop walks, lost – no destination.
Getting lost is the best way to find a way forward when choices oppress in
doldrum moods or are stolen by gale force winds.
Just a flip of a coin – there’s no wrong turn.
All paths circle home like all rivers lead to the sea.
Whichever way we turn, however far we wander, whatever dead ends us,
we always return.
Another corner, another junction, two roads meet and then continue on their way.
An afternoon, a life to wander and enjoy until we tire, turn around, and head
back home.
Just a flip of a coin – there’s no wrong turn.
Untitled
by Barbara Farmer
No Turning Back
by Betty Jo Middleton
She stands alone at the corner,
the corner of Hope and Despair.
Which way to turn?
Hope is long and Hope is wide,
but Hope is uphill all the way;
Despair slopes gently downward.
No turning back—she knows that now.
She wonders if the direction she chooses
is permanent, or if she might
choose one way and then decide
to retreat and choose another way.
Other choices—some not her own—
have brought her to this corner.
The path that brought her here
at first seemed to stretch on forever.
No turning back—she knows that now.
So she stands at this corner,
the corner of Hope and Despair.
It seems she must have always known
this day would come. The ground she stands on
seems to shift, to tilt one way and then the other,
sending her up Hope, not down Despair.
No turning back—she knows that now.
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!