LET ME BE YOUR WITNESS

THIS IS AN INVITATION TO ALL MY  BLOG READERS


On Saturday 28 September  from 2 to 3:30PM I will be leading a workshop that is free and open to the public
 It will be held at the Good Samaritans on Park Place in Pawtucket.  I will  talk about the idea of our lives as  witnesses.  And of poetry as an act of witness.

We will examine the idea of witness from the  initial act to make our own mark and  through our creative selves express that we are here.
As expressed in the poem   THE LISTENERS  "Tell them that I came and No one answered.
That I kept my word, he said."

Then we will put the mirrors down. And make the turn to look at the world we  were born into.

Drawing on the work of Carolyn Forche  who  moved from the self-witness of poetry to  make the outward turn and bear witness to the world that she was placed in  by the fate of her birth and nation.
Each of us are called to make that turn and to transcribe what we see and what we see other people enduring in our  writing.

WE will look at a few examples from poets who have made that  turn. 
Poets like Hikmet, and Whitman, and Neruda.
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Some have  decided to bear witness to the  misfortunes  and injustices of other people  that they are sharing the globe with in this finite time that we have on earth.

Some have turned to bear witness to the glory of the  natural world.  Flowers, trees, sunsets have inspired them. Think of  "I wandered lonely as a cloud." 

Some see through the glories of nature to witness the  Hand of God the Creator and they bear witness to the DIVINE PRESENCE in  the world. Think of a simple poem like Joyce Kilmer's "Trees"
"Poems are made by fools like me. But only God can make a tree."


All of these varieties of  Witness are parts of the poetic  purpose
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We  will  also take some time to look at  current issues as reported in the news and see if and how each of us can bear witness to those events  in our own writing.


Join us in person  on Saturday if you can. Or use this mini-outline to be with us in spirit and to continue your own journey as WITNESS.