Two Goodbyes

Last Day of March – Two Goodbyes

What a day! Our Spring Writing Project conference went so well today. Poet Richard Blanco is a rock star. He was our keynote speaker and he read “How to Love a Country” and “America,” touching on themes of home, of immigration and belonging. He read “Easy Lynching on Herndon Avenue” addressing racism, and “Until We Could,” a plea for freedom for same sex couples to marry. His message, his tone, his poetic voice captivated our audience that was already familiar and enthralled with his words.

We had a panel presentation afterwards where people discussed their year-long experience with our NEH grant, as well as classroom applications for the work they did with identity and writing about family history. Then we had an ‘open mic’ section of the program where educators as well as a few students read from their writing. 

I’m grateful that it all worked out so well, and grateful to the people who participated in this grant work. We truly bonded through our writing and sharing, and we were sad to leave each other at the end of this culminating event.

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And now, it is time to say goodbye to this writing community. A second goodbye in one day. 

I had real reservations coming into this because I was feeling kind of blocked, with difficulty even writing with my writing group. The time commitment is huge, as we all know. There were days when no topic was forthcoming, and days that were too busy or too tiring to bring forth meaningful prose.

But the rewards are many.  I did write every day and breaking through that block was a triumph. Reading so many thoughtful, inspiring, human slices is certainly reward in and of itself. The commenting is such a fun part of this interaction – commenting on others and receiving validation from others’ comments. This blogging experience from Two Writing Teachers is well designed! 

Until next year, or until a random Tuesday, I say goodbye to you. We did it.