Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Mary Oliver, The Summer Day
Ask yourself Mary Oliver’s question from time to time. Make room for your inner voice to freely respond. In her elegant prompt there are answers to be found, or at the very least a course correction. Wednesday morning last month, we were unable to meet the men at Oregon State Penitentiary. And so, they gathered in our room, they rang the Tibetan singing bowl, and they started the free write session with the command Tell Me. The writing instructions are straightforward. Quiet the inner critic, imagine that the ink in the pen is free flowing and keep the pen moving for five minutes.
Stressla Lynn Johnson asks:
Who do I seek for information to tell me how to relax and Breath? Where does that inner voice come from?
Who is speaking when I am silent, as the voice become louder?
Matt Reyes requests family stories:
Tell me about the good ol’ days.
Tell me about my grandma’s childhood.
Tell me about my grandpa’s struggles.
Uriah Vargas asks:
Tell me …
Why does the world’s taboo
tell you to lie to my face?
Yeyin Chin requests love:
Tell me that you love me.
Of all the things people envy or hate about me, my relationship is not one. I know it sounds pathetic and sad.
In Tell Me I Jai writes:
Tell me
Who to harbor and how to abstain Where the good ones hide
How to hold a broken heart in the rain
From that piece, Jai developed Tell Me II:
Tell me where the nectar is
And how to catch the breeze
I am here carefree and expectant
The past few months, we’ve collected writing about the ceremony we make, the pieces have parsed out the meaning of rituals and traditions. We have read about how this connects us to our humanity and how ceremonies change in prison. When we meet with our writers, we start our sessions by greeting everyone with a handshake. Folks move the tables to form a circle. Someone rings the singing bowl, and I read a poem out loud. This ritual settles the bustle of the space, elevates the mood. We are preparing to work. From this moment we will do the five-minute free write, using a prompt that comes out of the poem, or an exchange we had. We engage in reading the free write, building off each other’s ideas, and letting this guide the session. By the end of the two-hour workshop, each of us has participated. Oprah said that every person she has interviewed — even Beyonce — asks at the end, “How was that? did I do OK?” She says: “Everybody just wants to know that you heard me, you saw me, and that what I said mattered.” This is our ritual.
Next week we celebrate the Pony’s second birthday. Help us grow by recommending a piece on Substack or sharing the work with a friend. | TDS
After reading the pieces this week, I felt like I was a participant in the ritual. Thank you to ponyXpress and all the writers.