• About MWP
• Invitational Institute
  • What it is and how to apply
  • Past invitational institutes
• Open Institutes
  • Teachers of Color Leadership Institute
  • Antiracism in the Classroom
  • C3WP Institute
  • Writing for Social Justice
• Youth programs
  • Youth camps
  • Scholastic Art & Writing Awards
  • Camp in a Box
• Workshops & inservices
• Support MWP

center for writing | minnesota writing project

Julia Shepherd

©2009

Currently Evolving
(Draft #3 7/22/09...and the children are playing in the basement)

Fraught with apprehension and excitement
Placed in a circle
Facing one another
We were

Five
Wise
Funny
Humble
Brilliant and Brave
Independent women

We spanned generations
Exploring genres
Remembering
Recording
Weaving
The fabric of our lives

For three weeks
We bled our stories
Across the pages
Laughing
Weeping
Recognizing
Blessing
Pressing
Laying them to rest

We learned
About the 60s
And everyday miracles
About small town women
And our expanding hearts
About going away
And finding peace
About the pride of Scotch-Irish men
And the women they raised
About connections of the heart
And the joys of choosing

We shared heartache near and distant
Because some of us were losing
And all of us had lost

We gained
Strength
Resolve
Confidence
Conviction
Friendship
Unity

We were experts
In writing
In living
In showing one another
The mazes
Of our complicated
Familiar
Hearts

We are
Women with words
We remain
Currently evolving

 

Who Is She?

If men were women
Then after the wars they would say as we do
Our hearts are stitched together
And others might understand
In the same way they do when they hear
We were on the same tour in ‘Nam
Saved my ass
War buddies
We’ve been in the trenches together
Traveled through hell

So who is she?
To whom your heart is stitched

They wondered.

So do I.

And I don’t have an answer
For the person who was with me
When my life was changing
Priorities shifting
By what we saw and shared and chose
Through Jean’s final months
No one else knows

Indeed it is an intimacy
And I understand that word
In ways I never knew before

Who is she?
The person who shared in the lessons

Choosing
Gratitude
Deep living
Dying as part of living

It’s better with two.

And I’m sorry for you
Who have not known
A love like this
And I’m sorry for you
Who cannot know
A love like this

Only she

To whom my heart is stitched