The World Begins at a Kitchen Table: A Writing Practice with Joy Harjo and Carrie Mae Weems
Daily Nourishment Read Time: 45 seconds
Pause/Prompt/Practice Time: 15 minutes
“The world begins at a kitchen table.” - Joy Harjo
Pause.
Take three deep breaths with a six-count inhale and a six-count exhale. Then allocate a few minutes to viewing these photos from The Kitchen Table Series by Carrie Mae Weems.
Practice.
Sit at your current kitchen table or recall an image of a kitchen table from your past. Then set a timer for 10 minutes and begin making a few lists:
—Make a list of five memories that are somehow connected to the kitchen table you’re using for this exercise.
—Make a list of five joyful things that are connected to the kitchen table you’re using for this exercise.
—Make a list of five sorrowful things that are connected to the kitchen table you’re using for this exercise.
If you like, begin writing a new poem, story, essay, or letter to a friend using these lists.
Want More?
Look at the sculpture, Killing Time, by Ricky Swallow.
”While ‘Killing time’ visually recalls 17th-century Dutch still-life painting and even the work of such a virtuoso illusionist woodcarver as Grinling Gibbons, the subject matter is derived from Swallow’s personal experience. The son of a fisherman, he has faithfully depicted every sea creature that he recalls capturing, killing and eating during his life. The various fish, lobsters, oysters, crabs and others are displayed on a table which duplicates the table around which Swallow’s family ate dinner.”
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Today’s Daily Nourishment was provided by Charlotte Donlon.
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