SHADOW LESSONS
This week we delivered a brass Tibetan singing bowl to the PonyXpress group at Oregon State Penitentiary. We have been bringing in a bowl for our meeting since 2018. It was time for a bowl to live at OSP.
We begin every session ringing the bowl to settle us, draw our attention together. As the tone resonates, we listen to the last drop and then, read a poem or passage to set us up for the work at hand. There are two simple goals for these sessions: acknowledge fresh ideas or different perspectives and release collective energy in the form of writing and discussion.
We have a basic formula for our work.
1/ Ring the bell and then, listen closely to a passage or a poem
2/ Receive a writing prompt
3/ Write for 5 minutes — keep the pen moving
4/ We read (unapologetically) our passages or poems
5/ One person stands at the white board writing down words or phrases that catch our ears, as a way of mapping our conversation.
6/ We draw from the collective to seed new writing.
In the process, we find the points of intersection in our thinking. We marvel at insights and facility with language. We listen and we encourage. These sessions have been designed to keep things simple so that each meeting can be stand-alone (folks inside have scheduling conflicts, too!) We have a core group of people who come everytime and we have people who come when they are able.
FROM A SESSION AT EASTERN OREGON CORRECTIONAL FACILITY, PENDLETON, OREGON
To live with our shadow is to understand how human beings live at a frontier between light and dark, and to approach the central difficulty: that there is no possibility of a lighted perfection in this life; that the attempt to create it is often the attempt to be held accountable, to be the exception, to be the one who does not have to be present or participate, and therefore does not have to hurt or get hurt. To cast no shadow on others is to vacate the physical consequences of our appearance in the world.
Shadow is a beautiful, inverse confirmation of our incarnation. Shadow is intimated absence, almost a template of presence. It is a clue to the character of our appearance in the world. It is an intimation of the ultimate vulnerability, the dynamic of being found by others, not only through the physical body but by its passing acts; even as our darkening effect on others; shadow makes a presence of absence, it is a clue to ourselves and to those we are with, even to the parts of ourselves not yet experienced, yet already perceived by others. Shadow is not good or bad, only inescapable.
In the fall, we had workshop sessions across the state scheduled between the solar eclipse and the lunar eclipse. The parenthesis of these two events provided as with an opportunity to explore the shadow self. During the month of January, we will publish some of the results of writing directly related to the prompt and then, some submissions that recall the condition of living in shadow.
SHADOW WRITING PROMPTS: CHOOSE ONE
Shadow help us see form, it gives form dimension. This shape helps us understand what we are seeing and how it fits into space. Think of something that lives in the shadow, perhaps it is a part of your self you keep hidden — your shadow self. Now, write about how a shadow self adds dimension to the person you present to the world.
When the sun is overhead, our physical shadow exaggerates our form — a solid, elongated distortion. Write about this in relationship to something you have experienced. How has a spotlight changed how you see something? Or how has that direct light changed how you see yourself?
MY SHADOW BY CLAY FARO
We provide everyone in the PonyXpress program with a monthly newsletter to keep them connected to the project and to encourage them to write and submit between our sessions. We have attached a PDF sample here of the plan created for eclipse season. | TDS
