The Language of Longing
Essinova Artful Life Saturday Playshops Summer 2020 Dispatch 2 (Session 3 in review)
By Meena Selvanathan
This week we moved from visual language to poetry with “The Language of Longing.” Adeline Carrie Koscher (Carrie), author of Liquid Song, led a session on exploring our longings, capturing this powerful emotion in poetry, and connecting with others to create a meaningful experience.
I usually keep any feelings of longing neatly tucked away in a corner of my mind. But this Saturday, those emotions were drawn out of hiding and freed. For two hours, our global family sat together in that place of longing to observe, explore, embrace and even revel in it.
How do you revel in longing? How do you articulate that longing into a compelling piece of poetry? Carrie guided us through three techniques to get us all writing. After generating a list of everything we longed for, we delved into the sensory experience of our longing through exploratory webbing. The encouraging meows of Carrie’s cat in the background then cheered us onto the final exercise. The crafting technique of comparison pulled us into the world of figurative language where we explored possible metaphors for our longing.
Each of us generated a ton of raw material to draw from, spanning different desires, rich sensory details and unique metaphors, all ready to be woven together in a poem. For inspiration, we closed with a lovely reading of Seamus Heanney’s Blackberry Picking, an ode to the fleeting sweetness of summer.
Carrie’s playshop provided a wonderful space to be vulnerable and articulate our emotions in the beginnings of a poem. Our wants were unique, including everything from a COVID vaccine and a pedicure to eating liver and onions, walking the Pacific Crest Trail and reading everyone’s finished poems! While varied on the surface, they all boil down to universal longings and common, shared feelings that transcend cultural differences and other boundaries. Such is the beauty and power of longing. What do you long for?
Excerpts of select poems by playshop participants:
From “Watercolor Paint” by Annette Courtney
…
My hands shake slightly as I open the box
Cocooned inside a black shiny tin whispers as I remove it from its nest
I snap open the clasp, there within, shining like the brightest star, translucent pearly colours filling my senses
Pouring the water, swirling the creamy paint onto my brush, stroking the paper with light
My heart swells, memories kindled
I’m lying in a field of fragrant flowers on a warm summer’s day.
From “Liver and Onions” by Michael Thwaites
No matter how old I get,
it’s a simple pleasure
whenever I taste it I remember
the smell of coming into the house from play
to the sound of a too hot pan, perhaps
and the warm click clack of someone shuffling around in the kitchen
Something almost unidentifiable behind
the sweet smell of caramelized onions that gentle hands deliver
the unusual soft leathery texture and strong taste
fills my chest
warms my heart
and for a moment I have no troubles.
From “Chicken Feet in Black Bean Sauce” by Ramen Sen
That alluring aroma,
the burst of flavour over your tongue,
the moment of spicy surprise,
the salty explosion,
the fresh bite of garlic.
Those shared moments,
that laughter, that camaraderie,
the moment of sharing a strange, wondrous experience,
the light in your eyes as you taste it,
the taste of my home, that melt-in-your-mouth hug.
From “Staycation” By Belinda Chlouber
Airport security takes my I.D. and my ticket and grants me entry
To a tunnel with air to a place unknown
A beach chair awaits me next to a pool of splashing children
Quiet
Though in my beach chair
With my eyes closed
I am no longer a person but a bird
Released from a place
I only knew to be fear.
Coming up next: Sessions #4, on communication, co-creation and intimacy. Join us!
