THE LAST WORD ON LOVE
BY TRACY SCHLAPP
HA! as if there is a final word on love. It is an infinite loop that circles into the work we do. The PonyXpress writers build a trusting community to hold their joy, to contain their sorrow, to draw lines between this pain and the love they cultivate. They share what they have learned with all of us. I have returned from OSP today, as I write this. We were on the road during April, so we missed the news — Turtle released, Lakota Oyate-ki Club (our partner) has a new clerk, and Austin has written a PonyXpress theme song. In my outside world punctuated by the ping of texts and emails and social media likes, I am surprised by how much in-person catching up there is to do when we arrive on the activities floor. We step back into the communication time machine and trade news face-to-face.
We have two pieces that came to us as kytes from another institution. One of our writers who has moved to Snake River made sure that this work by his peers be released on the PonyXpress. In “Love/Pain” KV contemplates the binary thoughts that swing through his “cold cell with only my thoughts.” ZJ’s piece “What Hurts” recognizes how incarceration imprisons loved ones too.
Our OSP reader Scott Bitter responded to Stressla Lynn Johnson’s poem “Escaping.” Of the work, Scott writes: “ … it feels like an emotive description of doing time. How much time should readers be aware of? Your vivid wordplay evokes introspective images of prison. Your frequent juxtaposition reveals the many emotional contradictions of feeling joy, sorrow, pain, fear, and/or isolation during the hour you likely spent writing this. Time does not stand still, and we remain on daily mental treadmills … left to our thoughts. Seeing this succinctly expressed on paper speaks volumes. It gives voice to the millions of incarcerated men and women who feel these emotions daily. Your writing (as healing) addresses the contradiction of doing time, feeling isolated, and mentally escaping, while sharing what it sounds, smells, and feels like with readers. Evocative!”
It is these demonstrations of love that make me infinitely hopeful. We see careful attention to one another’s work through comments in the workshop and the writing of thoughtful and encouraging notes on drafts. We have writing submitted on the behalf of peers, insisting that their voices belong in this chorus. This week, we sat together at the work table at OSP marveling at how much we have accomplished in the first three issues — and we discussed what we have planned.
This is the last post for Issue 3, On Love. While we evaluate what has worked both in workshops and on the website so far this year, we are going to spend the next two months doing special projects. Ahead, we have writing from the slush pile — pieces outside our established themes. For those of you who have recently joined us welcome, and for those who continue to read, thank you! It means the world to all of us. We circle to the beginning of this issue and in the words of Theron Hall: Love we all need it, no matter where we come from. | TDS