I guess it has always been common for adults to talk down about the younger generation. You know the drill. They have no values. They have no ambition. They aren't as talented, or as creative. Their music is terrible. But I recently spent five weeks with the amazing kids at the Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility in Colchester Vermont leading a Writers for Recovery workshop, and I am here to tell you that the news about young people is good. 

The students at Woodside, were smart, friendly, creative, and fantastic writers. They were willing to take a chance on a total stranger, to put hard truths on the page, and to share them. Oh, and the hard truths weren't all of it. As you will see as you read the work that follows, they wrote with not only fearless honesty but with introspection, imagination, and an outright wacky sense of humor. The time I spent at Woodside was one of the highlights of my summer. I want to send my heartfelt thanks to the students and their incredible x 10 teachers for sharing their time and their work with me.

What follows is the text of the reading the students did at the end of the workshop. To protect confidentiality, all works are presented anonymously. Read on, and be amazed. 

Something That’s Really Hard for Me...

 I find it hard to trust, to communicate, to open up.

All the burnt bridges I’ve caused,

I find it hard to look em’ straight in the face.

As I look out the window, I find it hard not to cry.

As I think about the past, I find it hard not to blame myself.

As I think about my weight, I find it hard not to purge.

As I look in the mirror, I find it hard not to turn away.

When I wake up shaking, I find it hard not to cut.

When I think about love, I find it hard not to hide.

When I think about Jamaica, I find it hard not to dream.

When I think about life, it’s hard for me not to say screw it...

FINALLY I UNDERSTOOD THE TRUTH...

Finally I understood why my Mom committed suicide,

Finally I understood that everything happens for a reason, that not everything is perfect,

Finally I understood why people always walk out of my life,

Finally I understood why I make the choices I make,

Finally I understood why I’m sitting in Woodside,

Finally I understood why people s*** on me,

Finally I understood why My dad is sitting in jail,

Finally I understood that the world does not revolve around me,

Finally I understood why why is not a good question,

Finally I understand why people tell me I’m a good sister,

Finally I understand that you can overcome anything you want to

as long as you are determined to overcome it.

Finally I understood why people give me chances,

Finally I understood to take what people say with a grain of salt

Finally I understood life is hard for a reason and that reason is to push people past what they can handle because you can handle way more than you think you can.

Ode to a Taco

 Oh taco, you are so good but you make a mess

I love that you are so meaty for me and 

neatly with a lot of spice.

Oh taco you lay on my plate.

Wait until I tuck you in so you can sleep in my body with that nice feel.

And you fill my gut.    

I Am the One Who

I am the one who took the cookies from the jar

and gave them to a troll under a bridge.

And the troll gave the cookies to a princess.

And the princess found love so the princess gave

The cookies to an elf

And the elf

Well…

Ate the cookies.

I Am From

I am from the city of drug addicts and criminal behavior.

I am from a home laced with domestic violence.

I am from the worst walk of life.

I am from a place that fighting is average and walking teens is all you see.

They are on an adventure to find the next high.

I am from a place I call luxury; others might not see it that way.

I am from a town known for drug dealers.

I am from a toxic place I call

HOME.

I Am the One Who

I am the one who

Makes poems like this:

Monkeys are weird

Monkeys are cool

Monkeys are sweet

Just like you!

My

Very

Excellent

Mother

Just

Served

Us

Nine

Pizzas

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Roses smell good

and so do you.

Snakes are slimy.

They slither all over you.

They are weird, just like snails

Floating like a butterfly stinging like a bee

Eating some food because I’m so hungry!

I Am the One Who

I am the one who

Is called brother

The one called grandchild

The one who is called son

The one called Friend

But I am the one who gets pushed to the edge

I am the one who sees nothing but hears the whispers that say:

Brother, Grandchild, Son, Friend

I Am From

I am from a place called home

I am from a place with trees and stones

I am from rolling hills and feather manes

I am from a roaring river

I am from a placid lake

I am from a place no other

I am from a place called home

I Am From

I am from a place called home

I am from a place with trees and stones

I am from rolling hills and feather manes

I am from a roaring river

I am from a placid lake

I am from a place no other

I am from a place called home

I Am the One Who...

Tires, I am the one who makes a beginning

the one who learns from his mistakes and moves on from them

The one who likes to forgive and take chances.

I am a person who shows others how to do things from experience,

I am a man who has a personality of kind

who loves to play sports and teach the little ones when he has time.

I’ve learned from all the mistakes I had chosen and believed in fate.

Taking Forgiveness from my friends and family is an importance in what I am.

I now will take things as an honor and move on with them while I still can.

Ode to Chocolate Covered Blueberries

Chocolate covered blueberrries,

just writing the name makes me melt in my seat.

I could eat them three meals a day without no complaint.

The way they explode in my mouth, it’s like a day in heaven.

Angels soaring thru the sky, even the devil comin’ out to sneak a peak.

Oh boy, they’re so delicious.

I would jump in front of a train to catch a bag

oh yes I would

my life depends...

SOME WORDS I WISH I COULD TAKE BACK...

 Some words I wish I could take back are

I’m a failer or you’re not worth my time.

I am all about hurting people verbally when I’m upset

not just others, myself included

I wish I could take back saying goodbye to people

because goodbye means forever and forever scares me.

I wish I could take back telling my mother that she’s a druggy and she’s just going to die.

I told her that and guess what?

She is 6 feet under from her usage of drugs.

I wish I could take back all the hurtful things I said to myself and others

and lift them up instead of bringing them down.

It’s not just words I wish I could take back.

It’s also all the dumb choices I have made.

I wish I could take back everything that has hurt me or others.

But guess what?

Not everything is perfect

And I can learn from my mistakes,

I also believe everything happens for a reason!!!!!!!

Something That’s Really Hard for Me...

Having to Say No

Accepting the Consequence for Not enjoying the results,

Having to take things further than expected.

Not liking the truth,

Staying at these placements that aren’t meant for me

Having to feel pain,

having to now feel that words are cheap

That they meant nothing.

I’ve now taken my life to something

that’s really hard for me

taking it to a place that’s going beyond deep step.

The Strain of Five Broken Souls

The strain of five broken souls

Souls that came with a flame

But the flame was no match for the gust of shame

Five souls out of love

Five souls from heaven above

Five souls that deserved the love

Superhero

One day you buy a necklace that you discover make you fluent in any language.

Astronauts land on a distant planet.

As soon as they open the shuttle door they see the most amazing sight.

A group of students are hiking,

When they come across a gold egg at that very moment it hatches.

You’re in the middle of a coffee shop, and time grinds to halt.

One morning Jessica wakes up and realizes that she is magnetic.

you meet a girl who, when she closes her eyes she can see the entire universe.

She has a twin brother who, when he closes his eyes he can see the fabric of time itself.

A light in your backyard gets brighter and brighter, until . . . Flash!  Flash!  Flash!

Grim, steeler, crush, toke, scorian

A planet exactly like Earth but one big difference.

Finally I Understood the Truth...

How things happen

How it cannot be solved

First it hits then it becomes a mystery,

Realizing what’s left to understand.

Having to vandalize your friends

not knowing which direction you’re going

not knowing the decisions you have left .

Finally I understood why?

The truth?

Your Right from wrongs...

I Am From

I am from-

Long lost places that have little meaning.

I am from long back roads that don’t have traffic,

I am from feeling the wind in our hair from having the top down.

I am from the small town turn around,

a place we all meet on Sunday to see the clash of the modified cars

I am from the occasional mix of blood and grease falling from our fingertips.

I am from the backwoods where we all know what we have done.

But at the end of the day, we sit down in this place that I am from

to see all the scars we have made from this little town.

One of the best things about Writers for Recovery is the chance to meet amazing people. Take Robyn Joy. She's sharing her recovery with the world in two uber-cool projects: A blog called The Comma Struggle and a print 'zine called Best Intentions, which she shares with recovery friends and sells on Etsy. In the blog, Robyn publishes her responses to Writers for Recovery prompts. In the zine, she goes deeper, with essays, art, personal musings, and helpful tips for people in recovery. In the future, we'll be posting an interview with Robyn about her work. And we'll be expanding the blog to include more info about cool projects by WFR participants, as well as more recovery news. Meanwhile, check out Robyn's work, and send her a comment or two. It's all part of the great community we're building, and you're part of it, too.

Each droplet a crystalline vision of the past, falling by so fleetingly that it could not be fully appreciated before the next.

            And the next.

            And the three after that.

            Seven more now, and the windshield holds a few to appreciate for a little extra time before, reversing their direction, they climb out of view, into the darkening strip of blue.

Faster now, they fall too fast to even glimpse them all, just the few, obscuring the view, in the path of where you were going.

            Wipers temporarily clear the field of vision through the accumulating past, but still the rains fall.

            Each droplet contains a condensed soundscape of the time, a rising chorus of all the past voices and conversations, the crunching cars of accidents, the whinnying of a horse, that concert, those thunderclaps, that alarm, all drowning out your favourite song on the radio.

            Finally, the storm of memories is too much to see through.

            The cacophony too much to bear.

            Overwhelmed, the past flooding in, the wipers are ineffective, the tyres lose their grip, the vehicle is out of control, and no sandbags can keep the rising waters at bay.

            Driving becomes swimming.

Swimming becomes floating, as you’re carried off by the currents, down your personal river of history.

The Black River Thundered past my bedroom windows

Over the longfallen ruins of The Mill

Shaking the foundation of The House

Clinking the plates and glasses and such

If you placed them too closely together in the cabinets

Shaking the pots and the pans on the rack like the Subway did

Back in The City

Shaking the tools on the bench

Causing distraction

And Forcing a Daydream

There goes two hours – what was I even dreaming?

The Rumble makes me sleep so deeply it seems this must be what a Coma feels like

The Rush of the water is like a giant White Noise Machine

Watching that River is Hypnotizing

Like watching the Fire

On a dirty-yellow morning

Twenty years ago I drove my

Plymouth out of town.

I was free, I was hopeful,

I was gone.

And now I’m back looking

For work, looking for love,

Looking, looking for a

Way home, again.

When I decided to live

things began to change.

When I decided to stop pouring poison into my body

life began to change.

When I decided to take back control

And then surrender

Life changed

I began to change

When I decided to advocate for myself

and let the part of me

that loved me and wanted to live unchained from alcohol

Life changed

Thank god

When I decided to listen to what people suggested I felt better

Shocker.

When I decided to listen to my friend and say the 3rd step prayer

I started letting go of the bondage of self

The bondage that held me just as much as alcohol

The bondage that stopped me from living a full life

When I decided to accept the things I can’t change

And to have the

Courage to change what I could

I could breathe

And I started to breathe

And it works

Thank god it works

Thank you god it works

I LOVE YOU

I’M SORRY

PLEASE FORGIVE ME

THANK YOU

Three years of Writers for Recovery have proven to me that writing can help heal the mind and spirit. New Studies show that writing can heal the body. You can read all about it here. 

Photo by Nick Adams

We are oh so pleased and proud to announce that acclaimed author and teacher Jessica Hendry Nelson will be leading our Montpelier WFR workshop. The workshop meets on Thursday evenings at 6 at the Bethany Church in Montpelier. The workshop begins on Thursday, May 25.

Please spread the word about this amazing opportunity to work with one of America's brightest young talents. The workshop is open to people 18 and over in recovery or whose lives have been affected by addiction. If you're not familiar with Jess and her work, here's some info from her website: 

Jessica Hendry Nelson is the author of the memoir-in-essays If Only You People Could Follow Directions (Counterpoint Press), which was selected as a best debut book by the Indies Introduce New Voices program, the Indies Next List by the American Booksellers' Association, named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Review, received starred reviews in Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly, and reviewed nationally in print and on NPR—including twice in (O) Oprah Magazine. It was also a finalist for the Vermont Book Award.

Her work has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Prairie Schooner, Tin House, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Rumpus, The Carolina Quarterly, Columbia Journal, Crab Orchard Review, PANK, Drunken Boat and elsewhere. She teaches in the MFA Program in Writing and Publishing at Vermont College of Fine Arts, the MFA Program at the University of Nebraska in Omaha, Champlain College, and serves as the Managing & Nonfiction editor of Green Mountains Review. She lives in Vermont.

Welcome aboard, Jess!

I am from a cardboard box, too large yet just right to fall through every imaginable crack.
I am from oceans of tears that have welled up from my own broken and salted soul.
I am from a family tree of historical giants who neglected to water the last seeds.
I am from me, a lifelong collection of personalities, gathered fruits on the path from those admired, Raised on Sun and observation alone.
I am from the giant heart I house with grace.
I am from, hanging in there one more day, day by day, until I stand and say.......' i finally love me and where I am from'.

I don’t know

That’s

the story of

my life.

I find I’m in

a place

that I can’t help

but hate

and I mean really

really

hate

That’s

the story of

my life.

Two days ago

maybe three

I dipped into a

low point

a hopeless wallowing that

is sucking me dry

currently

I’m in a coffee shop

surrounded by

bodies &

voices

and I can’t help

but ask

I can’t help

but wonder

I can’t help myself

from pondering

a lost and hopeless

diminishing thought

that goes something like:

Is it so much to ask

that I can have

a single meaningful conversation

with someone

with anyone

but all I see here

through a desperate haze

are shallow faces

and plastic stances

too vicious and stuck up

to care about what

I’ve got to say

Or maybe I’m just

projecting my own desires

because I don’t really care

about what you’ve

got to say

I’m projecting this need

through desperation I project

a desire to be understood

by all

in the process rejecting

the needs and desires

of all my fellow parasites

We’re All So Carefree

and so freakin careless

a bunch of

narcissists needing the

acceptance of others

to feel whole

the acceptance of a race

of hate-mongers

waiting in the back rooms

on the back streets

in the back of the

classrooms

looming tall on

dilapidated rooftops

just waiting

just waiting

just waiting for you

to come up to me

and see me for

who I really wanna be

But how you perceive me

and how I’m received

I find no relief

pandering to this blatant need

to be cherished

but not loved

as I perish amid

a locked derelict closet

I’m so lost and disturbed

hurt

deserted and I’m

rather perturbed

Now that’s

the story of

my life.

Standing on the edge

of the knife///

I am from the sky.
I am from an airplane I built with my own hands.
I am from the death of my airplane, crashing through the trees with me inside as she died.
I am from a tiny mistake I made in my beloved airplane’s cooling system, a mistake which I didn’t understand until years later.

I am from a lovely house in the seacoast area of New Hampshire, a home I loved with all my heart.
I am from a ten acre plot of land, which I shared with a thousand or a million ticks.
I am from a health care system which cares not about those who are invaded by a terrible disease.
I am from a system which does not work.

I am from the love of friends who helped me get access to legal cannabis in the hopes I’d get well.
I am from a place of terror, induced by the cannabis which did help me get better.
I am from a place where the THC from ten or twenty joints is distilled into a tiny drop of resin.
I am from a place of terror, from which I am desperate to escape.

I am from New York, and Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and Vermont.
I am from a place of hope.
I am from a Turning Point.
I am from a place of growth and healing.

A piece of wood

With six steel strings

It’s there for me to play and sing

A perfect shape

A perfect tone

With my guitar I’m not alone

The sounds it makes echo through time

With different rhythms different rhymes

A certain riff I’ll stop and start

To catch your ear and touch your heart

I BEGAN TO NOTICE how it impressed boys when I drank as good as or better than them. I noticed that I had a special power that my brother couldn’t put in his shadow when I used my body to speak instead of my words. I began to notice I wasn’t the prettiest or the most popular or smartest or most talented at the best at anything, but I was good at being awkward and not fitting in with anyone, and sometimes that earned affection from someone interesting. I began to notice I was my sister’s little sister until she went to college and had her first baby, and I was my brother’s little sister until he graduated from our high school, and then I wasn’t sure, so I became Billy’s girlfriend and then someone else’s girlfriend and someone else’s and so on unless I was the party girl who was anybody’s and could keep up with anyone but still graduate from college with a solid C average and hold onto an endless string of adequately paying jobs in customer service where no one cared about how hungover you were as long as you arrived on time and said it with a smile. I began to notice years later when I became a wife for the first time that I didn’t have any idea who I was, except that I did, and I loved not getting to know her better, because I found her to be too angry and volatile for public consumption and it was easier to just play along with what everyone else liked than to bring attention to such an undesirable girl.

It all felt a bit overwhelming. I was tired of running out of my shit, and when I did I was so sick. Depending on what I was withdrawing from ,there were different symptoms. Restless legs all night, the sweats, the shits, the unbelievable anxiety. Sore muscles, insomnia, headache. The shakes, the fatigue, the rage . The all consuming knowing of impending doom. Get it!! It doesn't matter how just get it!!! Stop fuckin' around and figure it out!! You've got another 5 hours till you try to sleep and don't forget about the morning. 2 for now, 3 for bed, 4 for morning to not get sick. I have a total of 6? Fuck!! Get some alcohol , that might help, probably not. Call the Dr. again, try not to sound pissed. Over and Over Day after Day. A Slave to get it, a glutton to take it, a whore to keep it, a thief to steal it, a liar to hide it, a fake to make it through the day. Enough is enough. I can't do it anymore!! I'm tired. I'm done.

The water rose
while everyone was sleeping, silently and slowly,
and no one seemed to notice.

And they were sleeping while they were walking; and they were sleeping while they were sitting; and they were sleeping while they were working;

and the only time they seemed to be awake was when they were actually sleeping, when they were dreaming.

Only then
did the pressure of the doom produce the appropriate reaction. In their lives
they were held in distraction.

The water rose,
higher and higher,
past the ankles and the tires;
past the roses and the fences; past the doorways and the lintels.

They were sleeping in their waking, mouthing bubble words
which could not be heard
until they rose to the surface

in their dreaming subconscious AND SCREAMED!

He hadn’t been on Cherry Tree Lane in over a decade, but not much had changed besides his vantage point. A few feet taller now. Regretfully, he hadn’t seen a single cherry tree in his travels. Honestly, he was a little doubtful that cherries even grew on trees — they seemed better suited for a shrub or vine, like most berries. He had seen plenty of cherries, just not the fresh-picked kind. No, these cherries were sickeningly neon in color and unnaturally saccharine in taste, mostly for show—an unnecessary beverage ornament. Something to distract.

Though Doris and I spoke in the hallway every so often we had never so much as shared a pot of tea, and yet, when she died she left everything in her apartment to me.

One morning Charles D. Sullivan; Esquire, rang my doorbell. It had been years since anyone had rung the bell and it was as though a fire alarm had gone off. Mr. Sullivan wore a dark-blue pin-striped suit, bow tie, and shiny black shoes. In contrast, I was wearing the same bathrobe I’ve worn most everyday since retiring ten years ago.

He said; “Are you Andrew Copperfield?” I said I was and invited him in. Not knowing my relationship with Doris, he cautiously explained that Doris had killed herself. When I showed only a moderate interest, he picked up the pace and notified me that she had left the entire contents of her apartment to me. “Me?” I said, “Why would she leave me anything. We were just acquaintances, just hallway friends.”

He handed me her key and said; “Just take what you want. I’ll be back next Monday to retrieve the key and whatever is left, I’ll donate to the Salvation Army.”

Though it was none of my business, I asked him why Doris had killed herself. He said with a shrug of his shoulders, “She probably just got lonely, I see it all the time.”

Her apartment looked a lot like mine, and there wasn’t much that I wanted. I exchanged a bedside table and lamp for the one I already owned, a couple of nice pots and dishes, and an almost new toaster-oven. What really caught my attention though were two very tall stacks of black and white composition books leaning dangerously against one another in the corner of her living room.

I carefully took one from the top and, though it was clearly a journal, there were no dates entered, and it was written in a style and voice that implied someone other than herself would one day be reading it.

I sat in her living room and read it cover to cover, all the while feeling as though I were peeking through a half-close blind. Before the week was up, I had brought the journals to my apartment. I read them with a passion only a voyeur would appreciate.

One snowy afternoon, half-way into maybe my tenth journal I came upon a line that read:  Andrew and I met at the library today. Hidden between the book aisles we kissed like teenagers, kissed as though we had been kissing for months and months instead of just a peck goodnight like the other night. It was my intention not to kiss him again, to put him off, at least until we got to know one another better.….

I felt ill. Dizzy. “Again”? What was she saying? Several pages later she wrote; Andrew would understand why my soufflé fell flat, wouldn’t you?... “Wouldn’t you?” Was that a typo? Was she writing to me? Were all these journals written for me to read? I raced through the journal looking for my name but my name never came up again. Quickly I picked up the next journal but it was obviously out of sequence to the one before. Carefully, I undid both the stacks, hoping to get to the final journal but there was no order to how they were stacked. It dawned on me she did this on purpose, she wanted me to finish every word. So, I stopped hurrying, I slowed down, way down, I surrendered to her and let her take me in.

Her writing was lovely. At times she seemed to care so much for me and it was clear that I loved her, too. Page after page we would fall in love all over again. She had me say things, teasing things. In her control I was at my best. I was witty, clever, and such a confident lover. The randomness of the journals was her way to ensure that I would never leave her. Well, I always did like strong women.

Eventually, after I had read every word, she stayed in my mind for days, for weeks, idle, quiet, and lonely. I missed her. My health began to take a turn for the worse. Then one day, while picking up my prescriptions, I bought a black and white composition book. And I began to write. I wrote about the dinner Doris and I ate that night. I listed all the ingredients, along with my trip to the store to buy them. We went to bed after dinner, promising one another never to leave again.

Eventually I soon had my own towering stack of journals but at some point the need for novelty began to creep into my writing. Harriet down the hall seemed so lonely. After our affair began, Doris had a fatal heart attack. Now it’s just Harriet and I. We sometimes speak to one another when getting our mail. And yes, I’m putting words into her mouth. I think she likes me. I can’t wait for her to read this.

Please don’t holler at me.
I’m right here.
Will you listen to me?
I’m sorry.
Can we talk now?
I want to tell you how I changed.
I wrote letters; no response.
But now I want to tell
the truth to you. Will you forget the
Past, and ask me any question
you want. Wipe those tears away.
Because I will always love you.
It’s been 10 years since I talked to
You. Let’s be friends.
I’m sorry.

Dear Mom & Dad.  It has become very clear to me that both of you have a problem with alcohol. I knew about Mom since I was 23. A school friend, after Mom had drifted in and out of the room, asked “How long has your mother had an alcohol problem?” Bam! The lights went on. I knew there was something wrong, I just didn’t know what it was. I remember cleaning off a table from breakfast, and there was a cup of tea left at your place. So I took a sip. It wasn’t tea, it was bourbon. Dad, I thought Mom was the alcoholic and you were the sober one.  She got sloppy all the time. I only saw you sloppy once. I had come home from college, the bus took me from the airport to a hotel downtown where you were supposed to pick me up.  I waited and waited and finally you staggered through the door and fell down in front of me with your head in my lap. I got you up, to the car, took the keys away from you, said “No, I’ll drive.”  I never said the word “drunk” in your presence. I always said things like “Mom’s not too good.”  When the “Children of Alcoholics” information came out in 1984, your 5 children immediately became the Deupree ACOA group.

Sitting in the passenger seat. The usual place to feel awkward and uncomfortable. She drove. The silence felt agonizing but it probably wasn’t. She seemed to like me? I guess? I mean, she kept asking me out for after-work walks, probably only due to the anxiety level that naturally builds up during the work day. She would have walked anyway. Nothing to do with me.

Plus she liked to have someone along when she ate. She did think I was funny. I do get that a lot. “You’re hilarious,” or some version thereof.

But did it “mean” anything? I mean I could have spoken up at any time. I was convinced I was “in love” with her, whateverthefuck I thought THAT meant.

But she did seem to enjoy my company, so obviously there was something off about her...

How the hell do you even initiate that question?

“Hey, so um, I ‘like’ you...”

“Oh I really like you too!” she says, very quickly and enthusiastically, “you’re SO great to talk to and I LOVE our walks! You’re such a great friend!”

Oh well. There ya have it. It’s ok I’m basically a spinster at this point. I wear sweaters. I tuck my shirt in. I have concerns about belts and socks. That’s ok. It happens.