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Nynke's Bonus Prompt: I do/don't recognize myself in...

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Nynke's Bonus Prompt: I do/don't recognize myself in...

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Listen to Nynke's poem "The Day My Sister-in-Law Dies" at the end of the session. You can also read it here. It was published in the Conestoga Zen Anthology.

Bonus Prompt 2:

Write about a death or a loss in terms of what you do or don't recognize yourself in after the experience. Keep repeating: "I do/don't recognize myself in..." Put the subject in the title and make that the first line of your piece. Evoke the loss or death through images of what you do or don't recognize yourself in after the experience but don't name the experience of the death or the loss directly.

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The Day My Sister-in-Law Dies — Nynke Passi

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I don’t recognize myself in the rosy sunset, nor in the sliver of half- moon dissolving like a wafer on the tongue of twilight. I recognize myself in the peeling bark of the Sycamore, each layer shredded over the last.

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Above and here you can find our upcoming offerings in Eventbrite! We have partial and full scholarships for every session for those who register early. If you really want to attend and can't afford the fee, contact us at soulboneliterary@gmail.com.

For those of you in attendance tonight, you may also have the coupon code for the next session, "Writing the Wound," so you can get 10 dollars off the admission price. The coupon code for this event is: HEALING.

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Soul Bone℠ Literary Center Offerings, Summer 2023

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Soul Bone℠ intersects writing with creative process, spirituality, social justice, and healing in tiny, winged courses that lift the spirit. Connect with us at soulboneliterary@gmail.com.

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Nynke's Prompt: A Journey to the Underworld

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Nynke's Prompt: A Journey to the Underworld

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Listen to Nynke's poem "Prayer for a Dead Girl" in the session.

Prompt:

Write a metaphoric journey to the underworld. What loss or pain have you experienced that took you to another place where you did not feel fully real or where nothing made sense, where you stepped outside of the ordinary and were isolated in a space between - neither fully alive nor dead? Imagine yourself going to the underworld as a mythical journey, then coming back with strength in your veins and the ability to heal from what you experienced. What does that look like? What role does anger play in your transformational process and how does/did it serve in getting your strength back, protecting yourself, being a warrior, indicating your boundaries and standing your ground? What would give you back your power?

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Jennifer's Prompt: Nature Poem about Hopelessness

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Jennifer's Prompt: Nature Poem about Hopelessness

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You can read Jennifer's poem "Time-Lapse Video of Trans Woman Collapsing Inward Like a Dying Star" (Poets.org) above or here.

Prompt:

Write a nature poem about the feeling of hopelessness. How does it manifest in your body? In the environment around you?

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“Driving through Fire,” by Joshua Jennifer Espinoza | Magazine | MoMA

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In a newly commissioned poem, Espinoza meditates on the body—and its survival.

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This is a prompt in relation to Jennifer's poem "The Sunset and the Purple-Flowered Tree" linked in above or here (Poets.org).

Prompt:

Select two emblems (this can be people, places, things, ideas, etc) that have helped you survive at some point in your life. Write a poem about survival, incorporating these two emblems.

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I am not broken. I am not depressed. I am simply

in touch with the material conditions of my life. It is

the end of the world, and it's fine. People laugh

about this, self-soothing engines sputtering

through a nosedive. Not me. I've gone and lost my

sense of humor when I need it most. This is why I

speak smoke into a scene. I dance against language

and abandon verse halfway through, like a broken-

throated singer. I wander around the front yard,

pathless as a little ant at the tip of a curled-up

cactus. Birds flit in and out of shining branches.

A garden blooms large in my throat. Color and life

conspire against my idea of the world. I have to

laugh until I am crying, make an ocean to land

upon in this sea of flames. Here I am.

Another late-winter afternoon,

the sunset and the purple-flowered tree

trying their best to keep me alive.

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The Sunset and the Purple-Flowered Tree - I talk to a screen who assures me everything is fine.

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Read Jennifer's poem "Things Haunt" here or by clicking above.

Bonus Prompt 1:

Write a poem that speaks from the afterlife. In other words, write a poem in which the speaker expresses themselves from beyond the grave.

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Like light but
in reverse we billow.

We turn a corner
and make the hills
disappear.

You rearrange
my parts until no
more hurting.

No more skin-sunk
nighttime fear.

No more blameless death.

My hair loses its atoms.
My body glows
in the dark.

Planets are smashed
into oblivion,
stripped of their power
to name things.

Our love fills the air.

Our love eats
the deadly sounds men
make when they see
how much magic
we have away
from them.

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Like light butin reverse we billow. We turn a cornerand make the hillsdisappear. You rearrangemy parts until nomore hurting. No more skin-sunknighttime fear. No more blameless death. My hair loses its atoms.My body glowsin the dark. Planets are smashedinto oblivion,stripped of their powerto name things. Our love fills the air.

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Listen to Nynke's poem "Time Drifts by Cloud by Cloud" in the session.

Prompt:

Write about a difficult relationship and start with the phrase "It goes wrong in places." Describe everything physically and concretely, in great detail, using all the senses. Perhaps you include a small scene, or you include fragments, details, moments. Make leaps to random ideas or metaphors having to do with loss. Write about how sometimes it's the ordinary moments where the most painful things happen - the moments when we are not prepared, where we don't see it coming. But something feels unsettling. Part of us knows. Perhaps our bodies know.

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Recommended Books:

Opening Up by Writing It Down: How Expressive Writing Improves Health & Eases Emotional Pain
by James W. Pennebaker, PhD, & Joshua M. Smyth, PhD

Expressive Writing: Words that Heal
by James W. Pennebaker

Writing to Heal: A Guided Journal for Recovering from trauma & emotional upheaval
by James W. Pennebaker

Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives
by Louise DeSalvo

The Artist’s Way
by Julia Cameron

Your Brain on Art
by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

Trauma & Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
by Judith Lewis Herman

Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma - the Innate Capacity to Transform Overwhelming Experience
by Peter A. Levine & Ann Frederick

Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body
by Peter A. Levine

I Never Told Anyone: Writings by Women Writers of Child Sexual Abuse
Edited by Ellen Bass

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

Edited by Ellen Bass & Laura Davis

The Courage to Heal Workbook: A Guide for Women & Men Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse
by Laura Davis

The Body Keeps Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

By Bessel van der Kolk. M.D.

The Rescued Soul: The Writing Journey for the Healing of Incest and Family Betrayal

By Christina Enevoldsen

Saved by a Poem
By Kim Rosen

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Joshua Jennifer Espinoza is a trans woman poet. Her work has been featured in Poetry, Denver Quarterly, American Poetry Review, Poem-a-Day, Lambda Literary, PEN America, The Offing, and elsewhere. Her full-length collection THERE SHOULD BE FLOWERS was published by Civil Coping Mechanisms in 2016. She also is the author of  I’m Alive / It Hurts / I Love It (Big Lucks 2019). She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Riverside, and is a full-time faculty in MIU's MFA in Creative Writing.

Nynke Salverda Passi is the director of MIU's MFA program and co-chair of the English dept. She is also the founder and director of the Soul Bone℠ Literary Center and Festival. She was born and raised in the Netherlands. Her work has been published in CALYX, Gulf Coast, Poetry Breakfast, Life & Legends, and more. Her poetry has been anthologized in Pandemic Puzzle Pieces and River of Earth & Sky (Blue Light Press), Carrying the Branch (Glass Lyre Press), and Oxygen: Parables of the Pandemic (River Paw Press). Together with Rustin Larson and Christine Schrum, she edited the poetry collection Leaves by Night, Flowers by Day.

Testimonials

"Every single event [of the Soul Bone Literary Festival] influenced my thinking about my own work. Right out of the gate with Nynke and Jennifer. Holy mother of all things beautiful! I was never so excited and proud to have these two women as my mentors and teachers. I remember after I heard each of them read their poems, I thought 'I hit the jack pot of professionalism!' Immediately, they opened the door of vulnerability for all the students and participants. After that, I felt there was no holding back the flood gates that wished to pour from me."

- Jennifer Sheena

"You two made a fabulous team! Your master workshops on Writing the Wound and Writing toward Healing inspired me to create my own poem concerning a traumatic incident. I had trouble writing about it, but this time, with your positivity and support, I came up with something. I think what really did the trick was y’all saying that all of us have different traumas and it’s ok to feel how we feel. I am so grateful for your supportive space and your grace. You both have an incredible creative energy that is phenomenal to be around (even on Zoom)."

- Jennifer Grant

"Two talented writers who have that rare ability to inspire others to write often and well.."

- Jim Turner

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“The wounds are the places where light enters.” ~Rumi

Jennifer Espinoza and Nynke Passi will take you on a journey from writing the wound. They will share from their own work and offer suggestions and ideas about how you can explore difficult subject matter with various creative approaches to prevent getting locked in fight/flight/freeze/fawn mode or re-traumatizing yourself as you write. What are techniques to write about the inchoate when there are no words? What can you do when you feel your story is too impossible to write? How do you recognize when you are locking into trauma mode and how can you get out of it? How can you take care of yourself in the process of writing? Nynke and Jennifer know how to hold safe space for a journey to the difficult places in a manner that empowers, relieves, transforms, and redeems.

About Soul Bone™ Literary Center

Soul Bone™ intersects writing with creative process, spirituality, social justice, and healing in tiny, winged courses that lift the spirit.

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Here is the Soul Bone℠ website.

Here you can find the Soul Bone℠ Literary Center's full summer schedule of upcoming workshops, generative circles, and events.

You can contact us via email: soulboneliterary@gmail.com

Here we will notify you of the upcoming MIU MFA Residency, a literary festival with free events offered via Zoom and open to the public. Our Fall '23 residency will run from Aug. 21 - Sept. 4 and will be an MFA Showcase residency with master classes, panels, and readings by alumni and English dept. faculty, plus a few special guests. Nynke founded and directs both the MIU MFA in Creative Writing and the Soul Bone℠ Literary Center and Festival, so there is overlap between events. In our Soul Bone℠ spaces, you'll often find some of our MFA students and alumni, who are always welcome to join! You will love hearing their amazing work. Soul Bone℠ exists as a creative, diverse community for poets and writers of all skill levels and in all phases of their careers. Our aim is safe space, connection, healing, and transformation.