Awake early and out into the misty morning of a happy Halloween on the river. It’s the morning of my Farm Pond Writer’s group, and I have done my preparation for the writing prompt, drawing inspiration from a wonderful poem by Robert Wrigley, “The Pumpkin Tree,” perfect for our Halloween meeting. I share his recording as well as the text which we will read aloud together. Gathering in the sunlit studio we circle up and listen. After listening to embody the poem and reading it aloud, I invite us to move around the room in the role of a chosen image of something, like the pumpkin tree in Wrigley’s poem, a being that has astonished us at some point in our lives.
The writing is deep and creative; the sharing is full of emotion and surprises: astonishment is a complex feeling, embracing both light and shadow, joy and terror. Each writer experiences the prompt from her own fresh and spontaneous place, trusting her instincts and intuition. There is beauty and truth telling, and discussion of craft. A powerful prompt.
We also process the reading we gave as a collective over a week ago. I want each writer to say what her take-away is from this initiatory experience, and I am so happy to hear the response, the experience internalized as a success, as seen by some of the responses:
So many facets of the cracked open female
Cohesion as a group; recognized as a writer
Beyond super! I can do this!
Exhilarating, alive
Lending buoyant spirit and pride
The collective beauty of all of us together, harnessing our energy for the joy of the moment
Shaking of tongues in the presence of deep listeners