You, sitting here — having no idea what to write,
wondering what made you think you could do this —
are hereby authorized to:

• watch your monkey mind leap from branch to branch until it settles,
• shift from overdrive into low gear,
• idle a while and allow what wants to emerge to emerge.

Permission granted to:

• write the hard stuff,
• scribble the missteps,
• record the mistakes,
• scrawl the blunders,
• even the embarrassing I-can’t write-about-this stuff.

Here’s your release form to:

• forgive (yourself most of all),
• let go,
• dismiss what needs dismissing,
• love anyway,
• apologize,
• be forgiven,
• write it all,
• read it aloud (if you want to),
• cry if you want to (it’s your party),

• &, once on the page, let what needed to be written
work its healing into your cracked-open heart,

then (best of all)

• watch those malleable words turn into art in your
capably imperfect, compassionate, writerly hands.

•••

Here’s to the writers of Team Haag who debuted the 15th annual chapbook
of their work Oct. 16 at the Sacramento Poetry Center, reading their
challenging and engaging, funny and heart-tugging writing
to an appreciative audience.

I’m so honored to host this group of writers in person (in two locations)
and online and to hear their just-written work that never fails to move
and amaze me. We continue to be grateful to the late Pat Schneider,
who created the Amherst Writers & Artists method of generative
writing that we use, and to AWA, the international organization
that promotes Pat’s belief that “A writer is someone who writes.”