INTERIOR VOICING

BY TRACY SCHLAPP

Interior voices guide our consciousness and actions. When we are in harmony, the voice synchs with the body and we achieve a delicious balance. In writing group, we often talk about the stories we tell ourselves about our selves. It is stressful to feel stuck in a particular narrative that doesn’t progress, change, or adapt. The writing provides a safe way to explore ideas to see if they feel true when finally read outside of our heads. When we listen to one another, we will take notes about what we heard, what rang true. This week we have gathered submissions that express the interior weather report of our writers. Rather than introduce their writing, I will let excerpts of their pieces do that work for you. | TDS

The Silhouette from Austin Clark, Oregon State Penitentiary: “For so long I knew that I could escape alone. For so long I knew that I could never escape myself. I needed to forgive myself to heal. I embraced the silhouette ... I embraced myself. I am sorry. I will not waste what I have taken. I will not waste the healing powers of the connective relationships that are extended towards me, in my time of need.”

Prisoner of Conscience from Christopher Lewis, Oregon State Penitentiary:
             Forced — Handed
            In a cage
            Being Controlled
            Like a puppeteer
            On a String.

The Deep from Albert Wright, Oregon State Penitentiary: “This story ... this is the one waiting to come out. This is the one I'm reluctant to share with others. This is the one my mind comes back to. This is the one seeping to escape through my pores, wanting comfort. This is the one that wants to speak to others ... not simply through words on a page or read out loud to others. It yearns to share feelings ... needs ... life. It yearns to share my secrets.”

Check Out This Check In by Yeyin Chin, Oregon State Penitentiary: “My heart is a haunted house.  It’s such a dreaded task, checking in here.  Certainly, I can find some poor peasant with low self-esteem to hire for the dirty work of maintaining this abandoned lot.  Where creeping vines and tall dead grasses hinder my ability to survey the wasteland.”

Freedom Is Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose by Hannah Brophy, Coffee Creek Correctional Institution: “There were days I don't think I am going to make in prison. Not because another inmate would have bludgeoned me in the bathroom, but that the fragile line we all straddle between sanity and instability would finally be crossed. I am sure I wouldn't be nuts is a specific way, just categorically crazy.”