CMYK …

CMYK



                                                                         OPINION                                                                                     A9




"
Kennebec Journal                                                                                                                          Sunday, January 27, 2008




                            From local writing workshops
                                                                                                                                      Kindness
                                 WORDS ABOUT
                                  Words about life
                                                                                                                                      may kill us
                                                                                                                                        but not


            needed
                    I
                                 O
                                   LIFE        rejoice, puzzle
                                                                      By Lee Sharkey
                                                                                                                                       just yet.

                                                                                                                                     The
                                                                                                                                     king's
                                             ne of life's unsung joys is having someone put into words an insight
                                             we've had but haven't found the language for. Once said or written, an


     FRIENDS                     insight can be held onto and passed on to others. Language is our common cloth.
                                    Every other Monday for the last 20 years, a small group of people has gathered
                                 for a writing workshop I facilitate at the LINC Social Club, a club in Augusta for
                                 adults with mental-health issues.
                                                                                                                                     army
          and
                                    The workshop is a place that honors creativity, where art provides the freedom
                                 to tell the truth, where language shapes reality and its rules are flexible.
                                    We write poems and read them to each other. We read aloud poems by pub-
                                 lished writers, discuss what in them intrigues us, and steal ideas from them. We
                                 collaborate on poems, writing one line then passing the page around our circle,                     stands
           all                   everyone in turn adding a line, trying to keep the poem coherent by giving up con-
                                 trol over where it may be going. In this way, over the years we have become a com-
                                 munity of writers.
                                    I type out the poems from each session so people can appreciate their work in
                                                                                                                                     strong
         I got                   print and pass it on to others. About 10 years ago. I also began printing phrases
                                 from the poems in large type on 81/2-by-11-inch sheets of colored paper, which we
                                 taped up around the club.
                                    These LINC Words were our way of injecting the spirit of the workshop into the
                                                                                                                                     against
         were                    club as a whole. "I am here to say something," they announced. The words spoke
                                 from heart to heart and evoked laughter or reflection. They bore no author's name
                                 to show they came out of our collaboration.
                                    The current members of the LINC Club writing workshop are Ruth Cohen,
                                                                                                                                     the
       answering                 Cindy Dow, Greg Gagne, Mark Shedd and Deb Westbrook. The poems on this page
                                 are LINC Words that have emerged from our work together over the last year.
                                 These words have no pretensions. They look candidly within and they speak truth
                                                                                                                                     winds
                                                                                                                                     of
                                 to power. They croon tenderly and give vent to anger. They rejoice in life and puz-


       machines.                 zle out its complications. And the language sounds as if it just popped out of
                                 someone's mouth.

                                 Poet Lee Sharkey of Vienna is assistant professor of English and Women's Studies at the
                                 University of Maine at Farmington, where she is also the editor of the Beloit Poetry Journal.
                                                                                                                                     change.
      I am here to say something.
             The words taste strong in my mouth.

      It is                                          SOMEONE
      my                       has to make things happen,
      lost                   whether it's a SINGER or a SWORDSMAN.
      memory.
                                             I am                                                                                   BARBIE
      It is I who                                                                                                                decides to divorce
      is searching.                      temporarily                                                                                Ken and marry
                                           away--                                                                                        her MIRROR.
                                            I have                                                                          Hang
                                             filed
         BIG
         brains
                                                       MYSELF
                                                                  for
                                                                                                                             in
                                                                                                                              there,
                                                                                                                              GOOD
       sometimes                         LATER.                                                                                   BODY,
         think                   Your students were faithful                                                                GOOD
                                     and
                   small.
                                         have                                                                                       FRIEND.
                                            left you.

        Continue to praise this mutilated world.
      My regret does not lift me                                                The net is too small;
   to new heights of possibility.                                               some fish escape.
                                                                                Someone will starve tonight.

    Look to the sky for beauty
    and to your feet
    to get from here to there.