Wednesday Feb 27 LEGACY WRITING

 THREE prompts

I remember the first time I saw the candy jar at my grandfather’s house. You might just as well you. put a siren on it. It screamed to be noticed.]

I don’t remember the last time I saw my Dad before he started to live with me. I knew where he was, but I can’t really remember anything about where it was or even if we talked. It wasn’t at my sister’s house, or even at his house. It wasn’t with my brother. Perhaps it was at my cousin’s daughter’s wedding. I don’t remember. 

It has taken me all this time to realize. That every day can actually be a month in my life. That a year can pass by as quickly as a day, especially if every day is exactly the same, and becomes a blur. Kind of like a camera taking periodic still pictures on a day by day basis, where there is no visible change in the days that go by, perhaps minute ones that make a difference. And perhaps those minute differences could be a whole month in and of themselves. However, a day with a new voice, a new thought, or several of them or perhaps a new way to look outside and see the sun shine, the deer pass, the wind blow branches down or keep them up and swaying. Those days are full of life. The antithesis of meditation. 

ONE MORE THING

Now be a reader and be curious about your writing. Writing without processing may not be as important as the reflection, being a reader and being curious about what you have written. The first prompt skim, and highlight any phrases that jump out for some reason

1. 

You might just as well have

Put a siren on it

Second one:

I really can’t remember anything about where it was or even if we talked.

Third one:

It has taken me all this time. Kind of like a camera, no visible change, minute differences, new voice, new thought, new way to look around

2. Be curious about writing: notes to yourself, noticed, surprised by….

The emphasis I was able to capture with the word “new” in the third prompt

The way I used “you might just as well have” brings it into first person, kind of conversationally, and the word of course “kind of”

And the repetitive use of the word “really”

Also: list making can be a way to start writing, set timer for 10 minutes, do reflection write and then can start with complex writing to figure out where to go next. A use for springboard prompt.

SLIDES: 

Where to begin strategies

Family stories, what are the ones that are told or still told. 

Sayings from family, which is the title of the story. “My mom would always say” if you can’t say anything nice don’t see anything at all. A way into a story.

What are some of the familiar stories rattling around in your head, told around the dinner table or at reunions, the stories that are well know why would you write them, especially if that is where you are starting. 

Questions I wish I would have asked, when those family members are no longer available. 

What are some potentional titles if was a collection of stories, that could be linked together, but could stand alone. What might some potential titles be, wheat are some themes in my life. Page or two in your journal, just potential prompts you can come back to and the reflection can bring you back to that place. Even the list can tell a story about you: I remember I don’t remember I’m thinking about I’m not thinking about……

5 minute break

2 lists of potential springboards

What I remember when I was growing up

What I don’t remember about when I was growing up

What I remember about living in the first house, 

Adult dreams about that house

Day dreams and night dreams

Feelings and families

CAPTURED MOMENT (second technique), refers to a written memory, Kay Adam’s created a thoughtful methodology for using writing as therapy. Writing that involves a lot of containment and structure to open ended wriiing or free association. Journal ladder technique. Simply a written description, like a photo snapshot freezing a moment in time. A paragraph or 2 describing a moment. You’re not writing about everything, what happened and what are your feelings and thoughts about it. 

Prose poem Tom Hennen, (email of all of stuff from today), like to that in handout.

About one moment in time. Corn. Picking in 1956 after a noon break.

What are struck by and what do you notice, 5 sentence

I needed a heavy canvas jacket, air an ice cube on skin, hitting all the bps on the third road, leavings tumbling and spinning, corn picker waiting at the end of the corn roads, father who Rand the picker, leavening back against the rear well, ham sandwiches, hot coffee and mason jars. 

Words left to shine on the bottom of a very cold afternoon. 

Poetic in parts, but fairly 

15 minutes from something from the list (captured moment and reflection). A short entrance meditation. Ask to remember it in. A certain way. Write about it the way you did for the prompts. Try not to stop or edit.

ENTRANCE MEDITATION.

Think back to. A time or event you would like to write about. Reading taconite manuals in my grandfather’s attic. First see yoursel fin the moment. Where are you, what is going on. Notice if there area any others present, if so who are they and what are they doing. in this moment what were you thinking and feeling at the time. Check into with all of our senses. What do you see in this moment, what do you hear, are there any smells or scents associated with this moment. What about your sense of touch, anything tactile associated with this time. Lastly a sense of taste, anything taste wise in this moment.

Mental photograph of your moment. Take a deep breath, open eyes and start to write. 

I see myself in the attic of my grandfather’s house. It was very quiet. My dad had unstructured me. If you find something that you want, you can have it. I had looked at grandpas writing desk where he wrote letters to all of his children’s and made carbon copies so all 5 children received a copy and there were special notes at the bottom of each letter. I remember that small desk where so much was written. In that desk were some tatting tools of my grandmother, the tools she used to create the doilies and covers that were on all of the furniture, protected by a layer of plastic. I didn’t know how to do any of that. But I was fascinated by my grandfather. “He worked in the mines”.  “He helped mine the iron for taconite.” Up in that attcc was a small round smooth black stone. I was informed it was a taconite pellet. So hard and cold and smooth. Stuck in the corner were some old manuals. I opened them. The pages were old, word, seemed to be kind of faded, and a think layer of dust on them, not enough to sneeze, but smelled old.. I opened the pages. So many words and drawings explaining the process of taconite creating. I was in awe. How could it be, that my grandfather knew all of this. My gray haired grandfather, with a full head of hairs, who hunched over to write all of those letters in block print so slowly. He knew all of this. The same grandfather who kept a special jar of sweets in the hallway/pantry leading outside from the kitchen, filled with lemon candies, and Neapolitan candies with pink, white and chocolate tasting coconut, so sweet, inAll of these words were in his brain. My father said, “he only went to 5th grade”, couldn’t see the reason to go to college or study. I started to understand why. The sheets of apaper felt like they could tear easily, perhaps even crumble in my hands. “I would like these books” I was discouraged. But even now I remember the taconite pellet, the drawings to create the pellets, the drawings of chutes and numbers that went with them. I wanted to memorize it all. Eventually I got tired in that attic, and wanted to go to sleep. I still think about those books, books that told me more about my grandfather than I could ever find out from anyone else. Books about what was going on his mind all those years ago. He passed away at 65 years old, had atherosclerosis and Keri he syndrome. I didn’t seem him much at all after my grandmother died. It was a kind of peeling away the petals of a flower and t letting them float away on the winds of time. 

BRING A PHOTO TO THE NEXT MEETING, TO HAVE. SOMETHING YOU CAN LOOK AT IN DIFFERENT WAYS TO PROMPT TO, IT WILL BE ONE TO PRACTICE WITH, SAME FORMAT.

WILL EMAIL HANDOUT. WITH INFORMATION AFTER CLASS.  Brenda@voiced.com