TRANSITS
BY TRACY SCHLAPP
It crackles in the air. Love. Makes itself known with big emotional swings and then quiets itself in the corner, sitting patiently waiting for its next surge. It changes. Our Greek words remind us that love relationships journey through time modified by life experiences and the individual growth of each actor. Amir’whadi Hassan wrote this playful piece during our workshop at Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution in Pendleton:
Eros wrapped in philia, an agape of selfless desire, a storge that creates mania filled with pragma, ludus true meaning of philautia. My Greek definition of love.
From Oregon State Penitentiary, R. Miranda writes of true love as if it folds and unfolds like a letter, or an ember of a desire, “a spark that frees itself” and drifts to heaven. The Harvest Moon cycles through the calendar year after year, hanging low and bright in the evening sky — it is a glowing wish, a forgotten dream. We find in this true love the ephemeral nature of love letters and the constancy of the moon cycle.
Trickle by Austin Clark considers love in three forms illustrated by water. We anticipate eros, like snow melting into freezing water that powers a “raging river” as it carves through the landscape. This water eventually warms as it connects and becomes the stream. There is the drink that replenishes the human cycle through mother’s love — storge. And then there is the transformation of condensation to precipitation, a cycle of everlasting love or the enduring pragma.
EL Maldonado writes from Coffee Creek, It Was All Too Calculated moves through the disbelief and the anger when the “do or die” promise of love is betrayed. She recognizes that the calculation intended to leave lost love and blame neatly packaged on her doorstep. Through writing, the calculation is reworked and in acceptance the equation to measure how through experience one finds growth and self-love.
Thinking past chocolates and roses, love is demonstrated through care; listening, nurturing, being there, and of course, the inexplicable ember that gets nourished from that care. Finding ways to reimagine romantic love, taking care of family, supporting community, and maintaining healthy relationships are taxed every moment of the day in prison. The time and distance chip away at love. On Valentine’s Day we passed out powerful words for each of our OSP editors. We wanted them to spend the day circling back to that word and filling their hearts with it. Each editor had his own word. The choices were random. The delight of randomly selecting a single mantra creating an energetic field between the guys — they called out to one another, “what did you get?” Johnny selected Trust, chuckled, and showed us his hand where the word was tattooed. Even in prison we can sometimes create magic. | TDS