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Bonus Prompt: I see / I don't see; I hear / I don't hear; I remember / I don't remember

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Bonus Prompt: I see / I don't see; I hear / I don't hear; I remember / I don't remember

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Bonus Prompt 1

To start some journaling about domestic violence, you can come at the subject slant, by writing around it with as much detail as you can remember, or you can do simple journaling prompts that may open your memory.

I see / I don't see...
I hear / I don't hear...
I remember / I don't remember...

If you feel emotional and don't want to keep going, take a break and do something grounding: stretches, movement, a walk, being in nature, lying flat on the floor to stretch your spine. You can also take up one of the suggested alternate activities to help you process: creating things with your hand, gardening, cooking, drawing, playing music, or anything else that helps you integrate and get back to your center. If writing about your painful experiences helps you and feels cathartic, it is time to write about them. If you find yourself locking in a mode where you cannot write or create at all, it's time to stop and do self-care first!

Consider wide circles from the periphery of the subject to the center. You can choose the widest, farthest removed circle if that is most comfortable for you, for example:

1. Things that gave you a sense of strength even when you were having a very hard time.

2. The details of the room or place where you found solace/peace.

3. A happy memory from these difficult times of your life.

4. Something you did to empower yourself that you are proud of.

5. A time you stood up for yourself, even in a very small way.

It can help greatly to reframe the experience by looking at your own strength first, then slowly write toward the painful memories as you are able. No need to rush there. You can take all the time in the world.

Remember that helplessness and a sense of self-loathing or shame are often learned responses in abuse situations, usually triggered by the abuse you may have experienced. So also consider: Are your feelings of helplessness accurate, or are and were you actually more agent than you may have realized? Are you truly the negative images that people projected on you, or can you dispute these ideas by examining yourself and your life more objectively? Sometimes it can help to imagine yourself your own deepest SELF with a capital S. What would your larger, wiser Self tell you? Your Self has your best interest at heart and wants to protect and support you. What would your Self say to you from a wise place of healing and knowing? Write it down!

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Read "Duplex" by Jericho Brown.

Bonus Prompt 3:

The duplex is a new form that renders the musicality and structure of the ghazal, the sonnet, and the blues on a single plane. The poem starts with a couplet of two distinct lines. The second line is repeated and a new line is added, and then repeated until there are seven couplets of nine to eleven syllables each. You can read more about it in this interview with Jericho Brown, who invented the form.

Here is another duplex example.

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A poem is a gesture toward home.

It makes dark demands I call my own.

Memory makes demands darker than my own:

My last love drove a burgundy car.

My first love drove a burgundy car.

He was fast and awful, tall as my father.

Steadfast and awful, my tall father

Hit hard as a hailstorm. He'd leave marks.

Light rain hits easy but leaves its own mark

Like the sound of a mother weeping again.

Like the sound of my mother weeping again,

No sound beating ends where it began.

None of the beaten end up how we began.

A poem is a gesture toward home.

Jericho Brown, "Duplex (A poem is a gesture toward home.)" from The Tradition. Copyright © 2019 by Jericho Brown. Reprinted by permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

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Duplex by Jericho Brown | Poetry Foundation

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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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Listen to Nynke's poem "The Blue Rose Dress" in the session.

Prompt:

Make a list of images and metaphors that have lingered in your mind from an experience of domestic violence, abuse, neglect, emotional abuse, or sexual abuse. Just the images, the metaphors, whether they make sense or not. Write them down. Then write to the images. Leap from one to the other and don't worry about whether your story makes sense. It does not need to make sense. Be in the sensory experience of the images, the sensory details that you recall (taste, touch, smell, hearing, sight), the metaphors that play through your mind. Let them tell the story for you of a part of what happened - perhaps something you can't articulate logically.

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Listen to Jennifer's poem "The Blueness of the Room" read in the session.

Prompt:

Write a poem about a time you experienced something painful or difficult, but instead of describing the experience, describe the space in which the experience occurred using vivid imagery. You may choose a color to center your poem around if you’d like.

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This is a prompt in relation to Jennifer's poem "Coercion Road" read in the session.

Prompt:

Write about something you experienced - something relating to abuse if you are ready to write about it - through the POV of another person or object.

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Listen to Nynke's poem "Hidden" in the session.

Prompt:

Start with the ordinary details of a day when something traumatic happened in your life - an incident of domestic violence, emotional or verbal abuse, or something else. Just describe the ordinary tiny details of the day: the colors of things, the smells, scents, sounds, textures. Begin there, and see if they lead somewhere. Let them take you by the hand.

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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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Two Session Generative Workshop: Healing from Domestic Violence

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Two Session Generative Workshop: Healing from Domestic Violence

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

Jennifer Espinoza and Nynke Passi will hold safe space to process trauma from domestic violence. As two writers who have experienced domestic violence, they will share from their own work and offer support, 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 and get back your voice. 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 will be your guides to safely explore 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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Copy of Copy of Copy of Event images - spring res 2023(1)

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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.

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Bonus Prompt: Loneliness & the Every Day

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Bonus Prompt: Loneliness & the Every Day

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Read "Domestic Violence" by Iliana Rocha.

Bonus Prompt 2:

Write about the loneliness and the every day of domestic violence.

If you feel ambitious, you can also play with form. This poem repeats the same words at the end of lines the way a sestina does.  It's a modern derivative of a sestina, a bit shorter and without the final stanza.

The repeat words are: glass, half, circles, breasts, hands, loneliness. These words shift and conjugate but repeat in the sestina pattern: 6 lines per stanza, and in the second stanza, the last word (line 6 in the first stanza) comes first, then the first word (last word of line 1 in the first stanza), then the last word of line 5, then the last word of line 2, then the last word of line 4, then the last word of line 3.

You keep repeating this repetition pattern. Choose 6 original words that are the key to unlock your poem. The way to make this sound natural is to choose words you can use in different ways (verb instead of noun, eg) or words you can alter slight to get a different meaning (circle/circling).

You can read about the traditional sestina here if you want to try it. The fun of contemporary poetry is that you can reinvent old forms by tweaking the form to fit your needs and aesthetic. Have fun playing with repeat words. They can constrict you but also push you to deeper places where you did not know you could go.

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Morning dragonflies tricked by the sliding glass

door, scattered on the porch like cigarettes torn in half,

& a horse in watercolor, its joints light blue circles.

Golf carts zoom over the green breasts

of the hills. I slept on my hands,

flat pillows filled with a puzzle of tiny bones. Loneliness's

gray blanket, last night's mascara, loneliness-

a dragonfly hovers like spit in slow motion near the glass,

promises to fill the pane with itself like his hand,

my face reflecting back at him. Half

the world is still asleep, my breasts

alive & waking from my shirt. Wind in circles

through grass, horses tip in its direction. Saturated circles,

faces, move the muted TV screen, broadcast more loneliness:

buy this property, try this exercise. A woman with hard breasts

isn't convincing. When I shift in myself, glass

breaks inside me, a sky losing over half

its stars, desperate dark hands

finding something else to fill it. Like hands,

birds clap their wings in desperation's applause, circling

as if their species is dying out. My throat, half

gastrolith, half swollen tequila, it's not loneliness

we flying things try to avoid, but in glass

a painful logic, one you learn like the breast's.

A rainbow interrupts the white cloud breasts,

like mine, where once his hands

lived, then destroyed. My breath against silence's smooth glass,

longing for the wisdom of a tree's hollow, sex circle,

how it endures loneliness

by invitations to other survivors of this world from half

its violence, all its love.

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Domestic Violence by Iliana Rocha | Poetry Magazine

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Morning dragonflies tricked by the sliding glass

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As a disclaimer: Jennifer and Nynke are not therapists and are not qualified to diagnose or treat or support the trauma that comes from domestic violence. However, they are skilled, empathic, and trauma-informed facilitators who are willing to share their own stories with domestic violence and the difference creative process, writing, and craft have had on their own healing.

The process of the creative writing generative workshop on a topic such as domestic violence has both benefits and risks.  Risks may include experiencing (uncomfortable) levels of feeling, for example vulnerability, grief, distress, anger, etc. It can also mean triggering on a prompt or someone else's sharing of their work, which can lock you back into fight or flight or freeze or fawn mode, symptoms of PTSD and CPTSD (Complex PTSD) You can find out more about CPTSD here. You can read about trauma triggers and symptoms here.

A brief synopsis: The difference between PTSD and CPTSD is that CPTSD is the result of long-term domestic violence or trauma that is sustained over time. "Trauma triggers can be anything that reminds you of a past trauma — which might include a certain smell, a particular song or sound, or a piece of clothing. Triggers are unique to the individual. Trauma is known to have a long lasting and repetitive effect on our minds." - Psych Central

The first thing to remember is this: Don't compare your trauma to anyone else's. Your feelings are valid, and please remember: you were never responsible for the abuse someone else inflicted upon you! It was not your fault.

Please know that writing about trauma and sharing in a group are also known to lead to a significant reduction in feelings of distress, better relationships, and resolutions of specific problems. It can make you feel connected, relieve shame, and help you find community with people who understand what you have experienced. Just be careful with yourself, engage in self-care, and know that there are no guarantees about what will happen. You don't have to push into the most vulnerable places. Do what feels comfortable and don't steer full-on into your most sore stress-points, unless you are fully ready to do so. We can talk about these mechanics in the group.

We welcome you to turn your camera off if that helps you be present or if it gives you space to safely cry or feel things without being observed. You don't have to be "on" in this session. You can tune out if a prompt is too confrontational or substitute an adjusted version of the prompt. Please start with self-care. Tune into what you need and listen to yourself. In the next post we give some suggestions for self-care that may help you.

Thank you for joining us today!

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Before we begin, a note on self-care:

if any writing prompt or sharing pushes you to relive unpleasant aspects of your history, grief, trauma, pain, or loss, whether you know what your feelings relate to or not, we have a few pointers for you that may help you work with your own creativity and process while regaining your voice and power as a human being.

As we said, listen to yourself with the prompts today. If you ned to turn off your camera, walk around a bit, get some air, do some stretches or yoga, cry, pet a furry family member, snack, or doodle, it's all OK. You are in charge of your own self-care and we encourage you to listen to yourself first and foremost.

We also want to give you a few SELF-CARE PROMPTS to bolster your strength and help you reframe your trauma narratives:

1. Talisman Exercise: Write down 10 things that help you cope when you are stressed from foods you like to eat, friends you like to call (add their number), walks in nature, time with pets, your favorite tea, a bath, a bike ride, or anything else that helps you calm down. Make your list simple but specific and hang it in a prominent place so you can see it and have it as a crutch when you need it!

2. Take a walk in nature or in a place that is soothing and beautiful to you. Try to be mindful of the moment.

3. Do some stretches or yoga exercises, breathing exercises, or any other movement-related activities that help you once you get stuck. This will help you re-embody and connect to yourself if you feel dissociated.

4. If you feel stumped, doodle, write "I don't know what to write" or "I feel scared" or pull out a coloring book and do some coloring instead. That can be very soothing and integrating.

5. Have alternate writing projects that you can turn to when you feel stuck or triggered: something humorous or happy, something empowering, something light, something expansive. The shift from difficult subject matter to light subject matter can help you integrate and get back to your center during your writing process.

6. Have an alternate writing project about yourself as a superhero/heroine who has powers. you wish you'd had at the time of abuse. Imagine yourself so empowered, you can avert all problems for yourself and others. You can also reframe your story and rewrite the ending - or maybe your life has already rewritten your ending because you have done a lot of healing since you were living through abuse. Again, humor, strength, empowerment, and reframing can be powerful tools to reclaim your voice and self!

7. Work in images and don't feel you have to do more than record things your senses picked up at the time, or metaphors that stick. You can be cryptic! That is fully OK. Saying the unsayable is hard work.

8. Come at the subject slant and work from the periphery toward the center, only writing about what you are ready to write about. One day you'll be able to tell the whole story. Don't ever pressure yourself! Go at your own comfortable pace.

9. Don't compare your trauma to anyone else's! Trauma is not logical and many factors (external and internal) determine the impact of trauma. Statistically, the symptoms of many types of abuse are similar if not the same - whether we are talking sexual abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, domestic violence, combat trauma, war trauma, refugee trauma, or more. We refer you to the resource text at the end of this hand-out if you want to learn more. Your feelings are valid, and please remember: you were never responsible for the abuse someone else inflicted upon you!

10. Practice self-care during your entire writing process: walks, exercises, good nutrition, rest, naps, fun activities, baths, and anything else that helps you nurture yourself back to full strength over time.

11. Recognize when you are simply not ready to tell a story, then back off and let it be. Maybe jot down some notes for later. A time will come when you are ready. When you are ready to tell a difficult story it can be painful, but it's also empowering and helps you get your voice back! It can even be triumphant.

12. Start with the images, metaphors, and memories that you feel ready to tell, that you remember, that you can handle telling. If you feel overwhelmed and get stuck during the process, you may be in a trigger mode (fight, flight, freeze, fawn). That is a time to stop and do something else: take a walk, do yoga, organize or use your frontal lobe to pull out of your amygdala trauma trigger responses, make something with your hands, do repeated simple tasks that are grounding and embodying, call a friend, make tea, have a bath, write about something light and happy or something empowering, or do things that make you happy.

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Here some resources used by our MIU MFA in Creative Writing students on the healing power of writing:

William Stafford's "A Way of Writing"

"Writing Exercises Scientifically Proven to Redirect Your Life." (Fastcompany)

"Science Shows Writers Have a Serious Advantage Over the Rest of Us" (Arts Mic)

"The Elephant in My Living Room" (The Writer Unboxed)

"Writing Your Way to Happiness." (NY Times)

"To Poets of Color Whose Work Has Been Called 'Healing': It Is Not Your Job to Fix White People." by Shayla Lawson (LitHub)

"Why Talk Therapy is on the Wane and Writing Workshops are on the Rise" (New York Times).

"Bringing My Daughter Back from the Brink with Poems." by Betsy MacWhinney (New York Times).

"This is Your Brain on Writing" (New York Times)

"Why We Should Read Literature" (Time)

Saved by a Poem by Kim Rosen