The
Importance of Place
“Where
do you come from? What have you left behind to get here? What do you
like to write? What do you like to read? Why do you write? Why have
you come?”
Elizabeth
Gentry (Writing Class at John Campbell Folk Art School)
These
were the prompts for our first writing exercise here at the Folk
School weekend seminar. We, the eight of us—seven women and one
man, are learning the importance of place in writing. We've come from
all walks of life and from as far away as Florida and Ohio to this
little Smokey Mountain community twenty miles from my place of birth.
This “place” is a three-hundred acre commune, with working
artists, and students in residence for up to four months, here to
hone and practice their skills—black smiths, weavers, potters,
quilters, wood turners and burners, contra dancers, and bead makers,
just to name a few. Old crafts, old arts, mostly older people here to
learn something new.
Here
is my seven minute response to the prompt:
“I
come from the land, this land; these mountains, this moist, green,
river valley. I come also from daughterhood, sisterhood, motherhood,
marriage and divorce. I come also from strapping sons and Liza dog,
and every kind of hand-work I can recall—drawing, painting,
stitching, quilting, writing, body work, soul work, packing,
bubble-wrap and tape. I like to write about life; its sunny
vineyards, its dark valleys, its pain and loss, and its great
triumphs. I write about soul, and the life it leads here in us, and
about our ordinary days as mirrors of that soul. I write because I
have to and because I need to. I write to keep myself awake and
conscious of the life running through me and connecting to you, and
you, and you, wherever in the world you are. I read what inspires
me—Barbara Brown Taylor, Mark Nepo, Rilke, Rumi, Mary Oliver,
Emerson. I read all sorts of books, especially historical fiction and
non-fiction, and I love a good Pat Conroy. I came to extend my reach
and to reconnect with home.”
So,
here is my question for you: Where have you come from—what have you
left behind to be where you are today?
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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