Breaking in a New Journal
Plus Journaling Club #2: The Poetry Session
Dear Reader,
In my last post I told the story of how I accidentally started a Journaling Club. Our club is made-up of four women who meet regularly to go through the prompts in the The Book of Alchemy by Suleika Jaouad. I also wrote about our first meeting. Before I tell you about our second meeting, let’s talk about the journal itself.
A few months ago, I went to see Suleika in conversation with Ann Patchett. The price of admission was a copy of the journal designed to go with her book. I stood in a short line to pick up the journal before heading into the “Dead Poets Society Room”1 where the event would soon take place.
Settling into my seat, I opened the journal and felt…underwhelmed. I don’t know if I can explain it but it didn’t invite me in, I didn’t have an urge to pull out my pen and start writing. I took a few notes but I wrote them in the sketchbook I’d brought with me instead of in the brand new journal. Later it ended up on a bookshelf in my house where other rejected journals go to die keep each other company.
When plans for a Journaling Club were set in motion, I retrieved the journal and gave it a test run, trying a few of the prompts on my own. As I added drawings and tape and stamps, the journal began to grow on me.
Now I’m a fan of the cream colored paper and the fact that there is a combination of lined paper, blank paper, and dotted paper.
With the page of colorful circles above, I used the lined paper simply because it was the next page in the book. I like it even more than if the paper had been blank.
A happy accident.
Sort of like Journaling Club.
Journaling Club #2
It was decided at our first meeting that we would take turns choosing and leading the group through the prompts. As my good friend Shannon began our second meeting I found myself more hesitant to write than the first time we met. I think it was because I led the first meeting and knew exactly what the prompts were going to be. By handing over the reigns I felt a little nervous about where we were headed, not because I didn’t trust my friend, but simply because of the unknown.
First Prompt
Our first prompt was centered around erasure poetry. Shannon had a stack of poetry books and she invited us to pick one and “erase” some of the words to create a new poem. For some reason my brain couldn’t unleash a new poem from within an established poem. Instead I opened The Book of Alchemy and picked a random page (page 105). I looked through the sentences, pulling words that grabbed my interest and wrote them in my journal. After I was done, I grouped them together to form something new.
For a bit of context, I’m currently at the point in the play I’m directing where it’s time to start advertising to the outside world. It’s difficult for me to promote something that is still a lump of clay with only hints of its final shape. The sets and costumes are still being designed, I’m only halfway through staging the scenes with the students. Right now I’m trying to look into the unknown and lean into something other than fear.
I didn’t end up writing a poem with the words but I did puzzle them together to create some invitations toward the unknown:
“Outside of safer,
opens doors,
welcoming the unknown,
surrendering to magic.”
And:
“Surrendering to the unknown patterns creates space for magic.”
And this last one touches on the cry of my heart after a long winter inside:
“Experiment outside,
play in wonder,
find your heart in the trees.”
Second Prompt
For our second prompt, Shannon told us to pick another poem and use the form to write our own poem.
I spent at least ten minutes looking through poems, feeling a little panicky that I wasn’t going to find anything. Eventually I came across a poem by Katy Bowser Hutson called I Wish, I Miss, I Thank You. These three phrases provided a simple framework for the last few minutes of our writing time.
On My Youngest Daughter Turning 17
I wish
I could travel back in time
and carry you against my chest
while I wash the dishes.
I miss
when I was as big as the world
in your eyes,
and the real world was small.
I thank you
for telling me just yesterday that
you’re glad you have
a creative mother.
///
As I said, this time Journaling Club felt a bit harder to show up and trust myself to the process. But in the end it was exactly what I’d been hoping for when this whole idea began: a time set apart from the busyness of life to process the things in my heart.
I’m thankful for my fellow sojourners and interested to see how each gathering will be shaped by the person leading it.
What about you? How do you break in a journal? Have you tried any prompts from The Book of Alchemy?
The Fish on Mars Snail Mail Club/Deadline to Sign-up March 15th
My daughter is starting a “snail mail” art club called Fish on Mars through Patreon and I highly recommend you check it out. She’s putting together a different collection of themed prints, stickers and more that will arrive in your physical mailbox monthly. For much less than a bowl from Chipotle, you can support an artist and get whimsical art delivered right to your house.
March 15th is the deadline to get her first delivery.
Here’s what you get in the first month, for just 7 dollars. Check it out!
(Micah posts photos and videos of her artwork frequently on Tiktok and Instragram.)
May you find space for beauty and art this week,
Aimee
The screenwriter of Dead Poets Society, Tom Schulman, loosely based the movie on his own experiences at Montgomery Bell Academy, which is where the Suleika Jaouad event was held.
I just adore everything about this and the journaling club!! Love the poem you wrote about your daughter!