WWRweekly—Found Sweetness

The following is a "found poem" or "collage poem" from a bunch of my students who responded so kindly via email to my having to cancel classes aaaall of last week... 

What's a collage poem? Shucks, you just take a bunch of random words and make some chop suey ninja word salad. Think Magnetic Poetry, only you find the words. Where do you find them? Anywhere! Nature. The paper. Any paper. And don't stop at words. Grammar, puncture-ation, space on the page. And goodness me, don't stop at poetry! Try your next memoir in found-verse if you'd like! Fiction? Sure! Emoticons? I dont' see why not! Work with your own rhythm and writing voice while conveying the pulse/heart of the piece (if there is one!)  In the following "found poem," my intent is pretty clear, but sometimes the intent is just to be wild fire on the page or... anything youd' like on the page for that matter...

Enjoy! and then go write your own. 



What My Students Said When I Had to Cancel Class Because of Walking Pneumonia  

Rest easy Rox.  
That means nap as much as you can. 
Let go, 
           Let God. 
      Have a nappy down day with your 'banky'. 
      Don't try to push through unless you have extra energy.  

Words of experience from my body: 

Rest....most important thing.... 

I had it in July. 

you poor thing, just take care of you.  If you were one of us you would say heal and then write about it later.  This is dangerous stuff and you have to kick it.  We can meet next week.  

Rest....most important thing.... 

I had it in July. 

I don't think I'm afraid of contagion but I've had this stuff and you will be weak for a while.  I say take another Friday off so you'll be able to have class and group next week. 

I am sorry you have walking pneumonia. That sounds rough. 

I had it in July.

Rest....most important thing.... 

I had it in July. 

I had it in July.

Honey, I cannot believe you are sick again.  What's going on?  I will call you today (Friday). 

Rest....most important thing.... 

I had it in July. 

So sorry to you're not feeling well, Rox.  

Feel better soon!  

Healing thoughts heading your way

Oh no!  

    

       Will go outside right now with the stars and the moon and face west and slightly south and send some light and love.  

Feel better soon.

Yuck.

Oh no!

I hope you feel well soon! 

        

     I'm sending positive healing energy your way

Oh no! 

Sorry to hear that, Roxy. 
eew! 

Oh no!

Rest well

and feel better soon.

Love you!

Love and chicken soup

and feel better soon

Rest Well.

Well Rest.

Well.... Rest.

and feel better soon.

and feel better soon.

and better feel soon.

and soon better feel.

and better soon better

and soon better soon.

Love       Love     

     Love            love        

WRITING WITH ROX WEEKLY (Good) News

Well...so... the not-so-good news is that I have walking pneumonia (but the good news is I am actually doing MUCH better now, but was wiped out for an ENTIRE week! Thank you all for your patience!) The other good news is I made it home safe and sound from Madeline Island! What an adventure! Stories to come! I am most grateful to the amazing, amazing, students who joined me along with my wonderfully huge-hearted mindfulness guide and co-faciltator Tom Glaser.  As always, I was humbled, awakened, electrified with emotion, yoga, laughter, and the ever-giving moment. 

Also, I am happy to introduce WRITE LOVE NOW, my first online class. Want more love in your life? For your life? For your writing? For yourself? For your (Jewish) mother? Grow the love, linger in the love week-by week and see how "if you write it, it will come!" Call or e me for more information: rox@writingwithrox.com    612-703-4321  

WRITING WITH ROX WEEKLY (Happy) Announcements

I need an intern! Free classes/retreats/etc, great experience!

 rox@writingwithrox.com

Want to write but not ready to come to a class?   

You can take any of my classes online! Inquire within! rox@writingwithrox.com  

AND/OR 

Also, I am happy to introduce WRITE LOVE NOW, my first online class. Want more love in your life? For your life? For your writing? For yourself? For your (Jewish) mother? Grow the love, linger in the love week-by week and see how "if you write it, it will come!" Call or e me for more information: rox@writingwithrox.com    612-703-4321  

UPCOMING 

Intuitive Writing 12 week class series

begins NEXT THURSDAY October 3, 2013

@The Loft Literary Center   Register soon! Fills fast!

New! Fourth Annual Fall Women's Writing Retreat 

On the lake in Spicer, MN!

Friday October 25-27, 2013 

Noon Friday-1 pm Sunday    Call for details!  

WRITING WITH ROX WEEKLY Woo-Woo Writing Wisdom...

Save your emails. You never know when they'll turn into poetry. "Found E- Poems" make excellent cards/gifts...............We'll be doing lots of FOUND writing in my INTUITIVE WRITING class at the Loft by the way...find me there! ♥

          ♥

WRITING with ROX weekly—What IS LOVE?

Saturday night just as me, Two Cute Face, and Gentle Ben were wrapping up a night of cosmic chanting, my phone started buzzing across the kitchen counter. "This is it, Guys!" I said, running for the phone, swiping it to answer just in time. "Here he is!" 

It was a little after midnight, our time. We gathered around the phone and listened hard, squinting to hear. Between the static, our Hind-Jew Hero, Krishna Das, surged through in waves, pulsing among ripples of Bhakti-fest folk chanting, cheering, blissing, all the way from Joshua Tree, California. Though we could hardly make out the chant, Ma had kept her promise. Shortly after KD took the stage, she dialed me up and held the mouth of her phone wide open to catch the Bhav and send it my way.

Love is your best friend sending
 you a text of your Hind-Jew
hero chilling out that says
"Krishna Das watching kirtan"

What a difference a year makes. Last July I wrote an article for the Edge about attending my first Bhakti-Fest and how great it was, despite my tete-a-tete with Krishna Das. I also wrote about how hard it would ever be to describe something like Bhakti-Fest to Ma, someone I feared was swept under by the LA tides of irony and image, lost at shallow sea. I also wrote of hope, hope that someday Ma might give Bhakti a try. I wrote how if it "worked" for me, it could work for anyone.  So I began to nudge her in that direction, sometimes a bit too firmly, including forcing her to attend a Bhagavan Das kirtan with me while I was visiting her last summer. Three and a half straight hours of prana packed into a smallish LA yoga studio may have been my idea of nirvana, but Ma looked like her chakras were backing up big time. Sadly, I thought I'd lost her.

"It seems like you and your Ma are on the healing path," my best friend said, after Ma had handed her the phone Saturday night. It was going on 1 am our time, yet it was so hard to hang up; I hadn't talked to either of them for a long time. Ma and the best friend go way back, since junior high. We've taken many a trip together over the years so them going to a music festival together was perfectly natural. The best friend also knows the relationship with Ma has not been easy. She's been along for the ride for 30 years.

"Yeah," I said, "we'll see...." KD rose up through the static. "Are you enjoying Krishna Das?"

"He's sweet," she said. 

"See? Told you!" What a difference a year makes. "Glad you're with Ma," I said. "I am definitely letting the love for her flow. Grief, bliss, all of it... most days anyway." 

"Tell me about it," she said. The best friend knows. She too, has a Jewish mother.

I told her a little bit about how when Ma left town a few months ago after visiting for 2 weeks, I allowed myself to cry when she drove off for the airport with her hundreds of bags. I told her it had been "for as long as I could remember" since I'd allowed myself to express that sadness. To bear my tears not just to the world on a busy corner, but to Ma. To Jude. To myself.  Holding Jude in my arms, we watched her swerve down Xerxes until she was out of sight. There was no use denying it any longer.  "It's sad when someone you love leaves, isn't it, Jude?" 

"Yeah," Jude said small-ly, "it sure is." We walked back up the Beach in silence.

Suddenly it occurred to me it didn't matter how it looked or what it meant or who reciprocated. It was my love and my love to do with as I pleased. It was my right to feel the entire spectrum of love, regardless of outcome. It's alright to cry...

After several years of very little contact with Ma, a memoir, a marriage, a child, another graduate degree, a lot of yoga, etc, I began to realize, to admit, to allow— despite the past—my love. Though I didn't want to admit it or believe it for many years, I love Ma. I'd only been hurting myself by fighting it. 

"It's a long slow process," I told the best friend, "just like chanting. Just like writing and lingering."

The best friend listened with love. I could hear it in her "mmmmhmmmmm..."

It goes a long way, love. Over time, I've started to see it more and more.  Love is Ma holding the phone wide open for me to hear Krishna Das live. Love is the best friend listening to me talk about Ma. Love is Too Cute Face texting me a reminder this morning to take some me time, to be gentle with myself. Love is Gentle Ben picking up an onion on the way over because I forgot to buy one for the Ratatouille. And love is crying unexpectedly because you hear a Judy Collins song and suddenly miss your dad. Love is the water waiting for me in my glass. And love is my body intuitively knowing how to drink it and how to let go the tears that I'm finally ready to run free and release back into the thirsting earth.

What else is LOVE?

WRITING WITH ROX WEEKLY (Good) News

Dear Men, Thank you for the awesome first night! I was blown away. I loved writing with you and look forward to our next write.  Interested? Still have space for one more! For info about the monthly group, go here: MENS Writing Group

Also, I am happy to introduce WRITE LOVE NOW, my first online class. Want more love in your life? For your life? For your writing? For yourself? For your (Jewish) mother? Grow the love, linger in the love week-by week and see how "if you write it, it will come!" Call or e me for more information: rox@writingwithrox.com    612-703-4321

WRITING WITH ROX WEEKLY (Happy) Announcements

I need an intern! Free classes/retreats/etc, great experience!

 rox@writingwithrox.com

Want to write but not ready to come to a class?   Online Class coming soon! Inquire within! rox@writingwithrox.com

We still have openings in our Madeline Island Retreat. If you haven't yet had a vacation or it's been a really long time, join us for a 5-day blissful writing and meditation/mindfulness retreat!

UPCOMING 

Intuitive Writing 12 week class series

begins THURSDAY September 26, 2013

@The Loft Literary Center   Register soon! Fills fast!

New! Fourth Annual Fall Women's Writing Retreat 

On the lake in Spicer, MN!

Friday October 25-27, 2013 

Noon Friday-1 pm Sunday    Call for details!  

WRITING WITH ROX WEEKLY Woo-Woo Writing Wisdom...

Show us. Show us what love looks like. Let us be there with you, in love. There's no need to rush. Take your time. Writing allows us to see your world, to take us on a journey with you, to be there with you, to love and be loved with you. Show us the love!...............♥

          ♥

                                               ♥                   ♥                                                 ♥