“I need a spare heart to feel all the things I feel.”

       It was a out of the grind experience, when I attended a workshop run by Edward A. Dougherty from Corning Community College. He had brought prompts and engaged a group of people who share the same passion, in rounds of writing and sharing from those prompts. 

       All interested were ask to, 'Join published poet and Corning Community College teacher Ed Dougherty for our Poem-Starter Workshop. We’ll generate ideas for poems using 15-20 minute “Try this + Sharing” cycles. Come prepared to short-circuit the editor-mind and dive into creating! If you’re not interested in poetry, you can use it to create flash fiction.'

      Edward A. Dougherty specialises in poetry but he had given a free hand to use the prompts for flash fiction or just idea generation and the entire group of more than 15 members thoroughly enjoyed, penning down poems. The session was interestingly brainstorming and each one came up with wonderful poems with varied perspectives. He would ask to read them aloud to those who were willing to share with the group. A picture with Edward A. Dougherty and me...

    

     Edward A. Dougherty teaches at Corning Community College, and is the author of two new collections of poetry, Everyday Objects (2015 Plain View) and House of Green Water (2015 FootHills) as well as seven previous collections. The book, Double Bloom: Exercises for Poets, co-authored with Scott Minar, contains activities to help poets develop their craft. He was given the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.

      He discussed about how do we enter the character and feel his pulse, thereby penning down the thoughts for this character. The first situation was about a lady with two teenage girls and what might be going through her mind at one quite moment and Ed gave us some 10 minutes to write. At the end there was this mix of ideas and flow of words describing this lady's pause. And I scribbled as follows:

Finding me

I wish I could be free

As I was during my College days.

    I work so hard day in and day out

    My children have grown up now 

    Just about to leave the nest

They had all the time to hover around me as kids

But now times has changed

    I need to look beyond this routine

    And find a new life for me

    Where I find a soulmate and a companion...

Writing soulmate and a companion, I meant doing some activity of my interest or getting a dog as a companion.

Surprisingly, Ed gave an addition to this situation, saying this lady is looking for a companion, who is a white and honest man. I was just stumped and told him, I already have mentioned this in my first poem, you can draw any meaning you want from this..😅😅

He then discussed about bible and its characters and prompted on Mary and her situation. She was as young as 13 or so and was pregnant being a maiden. Imagining her hardships during her travel and that she enters a 'town', what was going through her mind at that point of time...

Oh many came up with such simple but flowing words, it was mind blowing...

I scribbled...

Ah! Finally something sober

   I hope I find kind people around

Who can provide me a good bed

   And something hot to eat

Where I can stretch my tired legs

   A comfortable bed where I can sleep until dawn

I am feeling safer now 

   Being surrounded by people...

Then came a novel idea of imagining what's happening, seeing a picture. He circulated a sheet with 2
pictures and discussed, how to enter these characters and selected on picture of artist Vincent Van Gogh which was titled 'First Step'. Again began the writing exercise....

I actually didn't think of any words, so was just looking at this picture and staring at it, inspired me to pen down the first two lines and then suddenly I went on writing further down...

It was a nursery rhyme, after the whole sequence was written..

One two clap clap

Come my baby tap tap

Look here the grass is green 

Flowers on these plants are in their teens

One step at a time

Don't you worry you will be fine

Mama is behind you

And I am in front of you

  To hold you and to hug you..

I read this aloud and got a good applause, it was a great feeling.

Surprisingly, I realized, your upbringing, you values and your surroundings make a whole lot of difference. I heard poems made around a coffee mug and a chip cake in the first given prompt and wishful thinking that he could be the child's dad some day given in the picture prompt. 

It was a whole lot of different experience and I enjoyed the 2 hour session. I congratulated this Professor and he told me he was reading A.R.Ramanujan Book on poetry. Leaving the room, I met Joan an elderly lady, who appreciated my effort and pointed out a poster on the wall, the nursery rhyme 👇

Two little hands to clap, clap, clap. 😀😀😀😀

-Corning Area Writer's Group- Workshop by Ed Dougherty