We have moved through letters written by James Wright, William Carlos Williams, Denise Levertov, John Keats, and Emily Dickinson. In the past poems were always inspired by reading letters of writers. But not this time, Inspiration had not come for me or anyone else. I felt frustrated and failed as a teacher.
As an aside, I had asked everyone to write letters to each other sharing literary process and thoughts regarding life. I also asked that we share writing paper each week.
I walked into the room on Tuesday evening feeling unprepared with only one note for discussion: Reflections on writing letters, written and received. Has it influenced your writing and how?
This discussion lasted more than one hour as people shared what they had received from one another: affirmation, joy, beauty, focus on the particular, the singular. One person looked for a message for the day. They all said they considered every detail: paper, ink, handwriting, stamps, added art work. Several said they used special stamps they had been saving: a Sinclair Lewis, a Marianne More. No one felt alone with words. No one felt abandoned by their intermittent despair about doing good work. Everyone felt heard, seen and even understood.
I discovered that the reading of the literary letters by writers was the back story to what was being written in the letters posted in the last few weeks. I learned to trust my own impulses, questions and suggestions. I felt relief and joy in what had been found.
EWM
