P.S. TO "PROSE & POETRY AT THE LIGHTHOUSE" POST

[The Seven of Pentacles in The Tarot of the Trance deck; see footnote]

In the post here of July 22, 2006 I shared some of my experiences with teaching creative writing at The Lighthouse for the blind and visually imparied for three and a quarter years (1987-1990). In going through my files since that post, I found the below poem the class and I wrote together in January of 1990.

One of the things I often did when first starting a class or workshop, was to lead everyone in a collective writing effort. It usually helped us to get to know a little bit about each other and to begin working together. The resulting poems varied greatly in cohesion but rarely fell short of their aim of beginning to create a working group. They also never failed to help me begin to assess where each student was at, both in terms of skills, and in terms of interests and needs.

In this exercise, I led the class in a guided meditation in which they met a wonderful tree that had something important to tell them about their writing. Each student then said a word out loud that described their tree in some way. I then randomly "gave" one of those words to each student. Then each class member wrote a sentence, using their "gift" word, that in some way reflected what the tree said to them about their writing. Once we had all the sentences we decided on how they fit together.

The below was written at what would be the start of my last year of teaching at the Lighthouse (though I did not know it then) and is probably the most cohesive of its type we produced. This is not surprising as most of us had been in this class for two and a quarter years already.

TENDER IS THE TREE
(written by Debbie, Dorothe, Greta,
Patricia, Rose, Thea and Vernon)

Knowledge I learned from the tree
was most enlightening.

My inner self was frightened,
and like tree moss
my heart's feelings were fuzzy.

Hung high amid your branches,
I was enveloped by a peaceful strength.

With the scent of pine in the wind
I felt the rough bark of the tree.

Firm bark, protecting sweet inner growth.

Tender is the tree.

* * * *

Footnote: I had not planned on using a Tarot card to illustrate this post. However, that I came across this card in The Tarot of the Trance deck as I was searching for graphics for my Tarot blog last night, could be considered a bit of synchronicity. (1) A trance is very much like meditation and creative visualization. (2) A traditional meaning for The Seven of Pentacles is appreciating the fruits of your labor. (3) The post today on my Tarot blog -- written before finding the above Tarot card version -- is about The Seven of Pentacles, with two other versions of this card and several other less common meanings for it.

Need I add anything? I was very moved by this collective poem, as I was by all my experiences at The Lighthouse.

Resource: How Poems Work, a "lively" blog with various articles about poetry.

‘til next time, keep dreaming,

Roswila
[aka: Patricia Kelly]
****If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”)****My other blog: ROSWILA’S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL.