Poetry Month got underway at the Mansion this afternoon, poet Jackie Thorne and I began teaching a series of poetry workshops. We both gave a talk, read some poetry, talked about the different forms.

Jackie read from her very beautiful new book of poetry, Gone To Ground. She talked about her writing process, how she gets her ideas, how she puts a poem together. We read from a number of poets, including Mary Oliver.

We are returning for the next few weeks to help the residents write their own poems, maybe even publish a volume or a pamphlet.

We started out writing a poem together with the six or seven residents participating in the workshop.

We titled the first poem “Family Memories,” and emotional and  universal subject at the Mansion. We asked each of the residents to offer a single line about their family memories, and perhaps return to finish them individually later.

They were shy and hesitant at first, but then they warmed up to it.

Each offered a line from their own family memories:

Joan: Good people, up to a point.

Alan: I hated them. I don’t have a family. They are just a shadow.

I escaped. I just ran and came away.

Jane: My mother’s boyfriend Frank. I thought, if I were a bird, what would I do?

Madeline: Stabbed in the heart, I’ll never forget the look on my father’s face.

He was a longshoreman.

Ben: My dad was my mentor, he taught me a lot of things.

Bob: My father greased the hinges on the old barn door when I went off to school,

my mother asked him why, and he said I don’t have to listen for Bob to come home so late any more.

Now, I can grease the barn door.

Alice. Love, I guess.

I could see a lot of emotions opening up, so could Jackie. We’ll be back next month.