A Co-Writing Session with Beautiful People and a Beautiful Poem
I just wrapped up a Spiritual Direction for Writers Co-Writing Session and it was so so good. A lovely group of women gathered to read, write, clean, and nap! I always remind participants that they don’t have to write during the 40 minutes of writing time. All of life is the writing life, so everything counts!
This month we are using quotes and excerpts from Pádraig Ó Tuama’s Poetry Unbound book and Poetry Unbound Podcast for the SDW Co-Writing liturgy invocations, writing prompts, and blessings. Of course, it’s been perfect so far. Below you can find a link to the poem we used for today’s invocation and a quote from the same podcast episode that we used for the blessing.
During the 40 minutes of writing time during today’s co-writing sessionI read a new-to-me book about prayer and came up with a few new chapter ideas for the Spiritual Direction for Writers book that I’m working on right now.
*
“Consider the Hands That Write This Letter” by Aracelis Girmay”
“This poem has a way within which there’s something that’s held in the space between two opposite movements. And the opposite movements are like having one eye open, one eye closed, a hand knocking, and a hand holding the door closed, a hand putting something down, and something else taking something up, a fist open against the heart, and a fist closed, holding a pen or a spade. In a way, I think Aracelis Girmay sounds in this poem like an echo of the famous child psychoanalyst Winnicott, who speaks about children playing hide-and-seek. And he says, it’s a joy to be hidden and a disaster not to be found. That joint movement that we find creativity in, the going out and the coming in, the giving, but the holding back, the surrendering yourself, but yet, the watching of yourself surrendering yourself. And it seems to be that creativity is often held in these in-between moments.”
–Pádraig Ó Tuama, Poetry Unbound Podcast