Nov. 4

I pull on my comfy fleece,
encase my feet in tennies, even if
I’ll be inside all day, because leading
a writing facilitators’ training amounts
to a five-day marathon spread over
two weekends, and no matter how
many times I’ve done this, it takes
every brain cell to keep track of
so many moving parts.

Yet I do it with great joy, with
the help of fine colleagues who
believe, like the method’s founder,
that a writer is someone who writes,
that everyone has a voice worthy
of the page, that these new facilitators
will encourage others to push newborn
words from memory or imagination
out of sticky minds, let them breathe
fresh air, squall a bit, look around
and begin to live.

It’s intense, rewarding work,
encouraging others to write their art out,
to have faith that the words are always
there if you just loosen the lasso, let
letters and syllables spiral down the
arm to fingers poised over keys
or page, take a deep breath,
and let those youngsters run free.

(*from Pat Schneider, Writing Alone and With Others, Oxford University Press, from the five essential affirmations of the Amherst Writers & Artists method)