A REQUEST FOR ONE OF YOUR POEMS
Most of you who are reading this newsletter have written one or more poems beginning with the words, “I am from . . .” because the poem from which those words come is included in my book Writing Alone and With Others and has been, since the book’s publication in 2003, the most powerful prompt I know to offer people who think they cannot write a poem.
George Ella’s poem begins:
I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch . . .”,.
One time when I wrote to this prompt, I began:
I am from oak leaf shadows on a tabernacle floor
where children played in sawdust
and grown-ups sang . . .”
Over many years I have sent to George Ella poems written in response to her lines. One was written by a teacher who was, herself, a refugee in a camp in Africa, where Catholic Sister Maire O’Donohoe had offered the poem as a prompt. Another was written in a women’s jail near my home, where Karen Buchinsky, using the AWA method, trains leaders of workshops for incarcerated women.
Now a project named “The I AM FROM project” is asking for poems written in response to that prompt. I hope that this notice might move AWA workshop leaders to contribute and also offer the opportunity to their writers. Here is a letter from George Ella Lyon, author of the poem, “Where I’m From”:
Dear Friends of Poetry & Democracy,
I’m writing to tell you about a project that Julie Landsman & I are developing in response to the rhetoric of xenophobia and isolationism that is becoming rampant in our country. In such an atmosphere, how can we find our voices and make them heard?
One avenue is through poetry, that heart-cry that comes to us in times of love and crisis. Because my poem, “Where I’m From” has been used widely as a writing model (most recently across Kentucky during my tenure as Poet Laureate)*, Julie–an educator, writer, and activist in Minneapolis–reached out to me with the idea of creating a national “I Am From” Project. Through Facebook**, a website, and a great network of teachers, librarians, writers, and community leaders, as well as other organizations, we hope to encourage and gather “I Am From” creations from all over the country and take them, in some form, to Washington in April of 2018.
The action in D.C. will be a culmination of local readings and workshops, statewide presentations, radio and TV appearances, etc., and we plan to present what we have gathered to the National Archives. We’re encouraging creation in many directions; poems, yes, but also dance, art, song, drama—expressions which can be videoed and shared with and beyond their local audience. In terms of poetry, one of Julie’s visions is a scroll made of “I Am From” poems wrapped around a school, a library, a state capitol. Another possibility is to put our poems on posters and have a river of poetry on the National Mall.
Our deepest hope is to open a way for We the People to express who this country really is, what our values are, and how they unite rather than divide us. America’s embrace is wide enough to include all of us if we put our minds and money to our common welfare.
We would love to have you involved in some way. Please send comments and suggestions to Julie at:
iamfromproject@gmail.com
or me at:
rubyjomountain@gmail.com
Here’s to equality and hope. Here’s to all our voices!
George Ella Lyon
Where I’m From Project Website
FB: I Am From Project
George Ella Lyon
Kentucky Poet Laureate 2015-2016
