Workshop 2

Today’s workshop began with the prompt: “Write about a time you took a risk.” We wrote silently for 15 minutes. Then, we read our work aloud. A new participant at CORNER Project, didn’t want to read out loud, but preferred that I read his piece out loud for him. His story was about the first time he used heroin. Participants liked the way he showed the experience as both positive and negative. Another participant wrote about the time he nearly cheated on his wife but decided not to, only to find out years later that the woman he almost slept with was HIV+. A third participant wrote about the time she took a risk by leaving a bad relationship to check herself into an extended stay rehab. Karen, my assistant, read a story about a time she was out drinking and had no money to get home, and so she clung on to the back of a New York Times delivery truck. After we all had all read and discussed our work, we had the option to stay and write more. 

Before and after the workshop, I hang out in the drop-in center, collecting stories from people who can’t or don’t want to come to the workshop. Today, a participant recited a poem that he had written and memorized. He tells me he has hundreds more, on all different subjects. 

Full of Rage 

By Johnny

Fighting a feeling thats consuming my soul 

Unaware that this sentence would incur such a toll

Lighting constantly courses through my veins 

Livid at being shackled, and spending years in chains.

Oppressed my a system I entered through my own accord

Fury allows me to pay a price so few can afford 

Resentment and anger unleash a primal desire 

Armageddon couldn’t compare to my internal Hellfire

Gluttony awaiting to be released from this cage 

Eager to show the world I’m no longer full of rage.