EXPLORING OUR VALUES THROUGH POETRY
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Youth
WORKSHOP 7: DIFFICULT TIMES
BY KAREN HARRIS
© Copyright 2008 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 6:52:31 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Difficult times have helped me to understand better than before, how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way...
— Isak Dinesen
Freedom. Freedom to question, explore, and make decisions based on our conscious. Freedom from prejudice and the right to be viewed as individuals. Hope for a world changed by love. Freedom and hope are two values that have always been important to Unitarians, Universalists, and now to Unitarian Universalists. This workshop explores freedom and hope by discussing poetry that deals with difficult issues: prison, death of a loved one, and racism. Whether the difficulties arise from a social wrong or personal loss, faith and hope are motivators that help us through tough times and into a brighter tomorrow.
This workshop deals with topics that are more solemn than those of other workshops. Gauge how well participants are able to think about these issues. Activity 2, Death of a Loved One, might be difficult for a youth who has recently experienced a loss. Check with your religious educator ahead of time.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
ACTIVITY | MINUTES |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Prison | 10 |
Activity 2: Death of a Loved One | 10 |
Activity 3: Racism | 10 |
Activity 4: Hope | 20 |
Faith in Action: Reading Is Fundamental | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: The Themes of Hymns | 20 |
Alternate Activity 2: UUs Working Toward Freedom | 15 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Just as the more serious topics of today's workshop might lead to unpleasant memories for some youth, you should process these activities yourself before starting the workshop. Think about how freedom, death (physical or of the spirit), hope, and courage have played into your life. Yet remember that total personal freedom is not always a good thing. Being responsible for each other, being part of a faith community, means that sometimes our personal desires must be sacrificed or postponed for the good of the community. The balance between personal freedom and communal responsibility can be a delicate one. How have you managed to keep that balance in your life?
WORKSHOP PLAN
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Use the Opening designed by your group or the one provided below.
Gather around the chalice. As a volunteer lights the chalice, ask the group to focus on the word "freedom" in silence. After about fifteen seconds, invite participants to speak freely into the space a word or two that they associate with the word "freedom." When everyone who wishes to speak has had a chance to do so, close by saying,
May the space we create here today be wide enough to hold all our individual ideas and deep enough to allow those ideas to grow, to fruit, and to provide seeds for new beginnings.
Introduce today's workshop, saying,
We opened with the word "freedom" today, but there are different types of freedom. There is physical freedom, which you lose if you are imprisoned, caged, and even when you feel unsafe or threatened in your environment. There is also spiritual freedom, which is attained when you feel free to make your own choices in life, unburdened, or enlightened. The workshop is structured differently today: we will look at several poems that illustrate human beings in difficult situations, and we will also look at poems that talk about ways we can survive those hard times. After reading the poems, we will have a writing exercise that allows you to reflect upon the poems and your own ideas about how you can keep your spirit healthy during life's difficult times.
ACTIVITY 1: PRISON (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute Handout 1, "End of a Discussion with a Jailer." Ask two or more volunteers to read it aloud, pausing for thirty seconds between readings and after the last reading. Then lead a "What do we have here?" discussion, using these questions:
Lead a "What's the big idea?" discussion, using these questions:
Invite participants to spend about three minutes journaling about this poem. The journal entry could include their thoughts about the discussion with the group, or it could be about a time in their lives when they felt imprisoned, stifled, bound, or prevented from acting freely in accordance with their conscious.
ACTIVITY 2: DEATH OF A LOVED ONE (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute Handout 2, "Animal Liberation." Ask two or more volunteers to read it aloud, pausing for thirty seconds between readings and after the last reading. Then use these questions to lead a "What do we have here?" discussion:
Lead a "What's the big idea?" discussion, using these questions:
Invite participants to spend a few minutes journaling about this poem. The journal entry could include their thoughts about the discussion with the group, or it could be about a time in their lives when they faced the death of a loved one.
NOTE: Sukhavati is "The Place of Great Bliss," according to a branch of Buddhism. It is not the equivalent of "paradise," but the attainment of enlightenment.
ACTIVITY 3: RACISM (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute Handout 3, "Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person, Could Believe in the War between the Races." Ask two or more volunteers to read it aloud, pausing for thirty seconds between readings and after the last reading. Then lead a "What do we have here?" discussion, using these questions:
Use these questions to lead a "What's the big idea?" discussion:
Invite participants to spend about three minutes journaling about this poem. The journal entry could include their thoughts about the discussion with the group, or it could be about a time in their lives when they encountered or witnessed racism.
ACTIVITY 4: HOPE (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute Handout 4, "A Change Is Gonna Come." Explain that these are the lyrics to a song by Sam Cooke that participants will hear. Cooke was a popular African American singer who had eighteen Top Thirty hits during his career, including "You Send Me" and "Twistin' the Night Away."
Lead a discussion, using these questions:
This discussion might touch upon faith, as the speaker does not present any evidence of a change coming, yet strongly believes it will happen. If the topic of faith does comes up, feel free to explore that thread of the discussion and let participants know that you will be talking more about faith in a later workshop. If no one mentions "hopeful," ask if participants feel the speaker is hopeful. Ask what hope has to do with the previous poems and themes of today's workshop.
Invite participants to craft a poem in their journals. There are several ways they might approach this writing assignment; they could write:
If you have time, and if they are comfortable doing so, invite participants to share their writing.
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Use the Closing designed by your group or the one provided below.
Recite together Reading 712 from Singing the Living Tradition:
Do not be conformed to this world,
But be transformed by the renewing of your minds.
— Romans 12
Extinguish the chalice.
FAITH IN ACTION: READING IS FUNDAMENTAL
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants discover ways of memorializing a loved one. If your congregation recognizes the Day of the Dead or holds another service in remembrance of the dead, consider connecting this service activity to that event. (Do not have the activity at a memorial service.)
Say to the participants,
Poetry and other forms of writing offer constructive ways of talking about difficult issues. They can also be used to comfort us when our minds and hearts are troubled. The death of a loved one can be such a time. Many UUs hold memorial services for the dead, and often readings of poetry, prose, or selections from a holy book are part of these services. These readings might be favorites of the deceased person or they might be meant to comfort the living. Sometimes a person will request a specific reading for his/her own memorial service. Has anyone ever attended a memorial service during which poetry was read?
Ask if anyone has ever known a family to request that, in lieu of flowers, friends of the deceased give a donation to an organization. Tell them that RIF (at www.rif.org/) is one such organization that accepts memorial donations. One of RIF's programs includes giving away free books to schoolchildren.
Discuss the following questions:
Ask participants how promoting memorial donations to RIF would put our UU faith in action. If the group decides to pursue this activity, arrange a time to set up a table after a worship service and accept donations. You will need information about RIF, pens, and donation forms at the table. Decorate the table with children's books. Distribute the donation forms and review the information needed. If you provide the online form, note that it asks for a credit card, but donors can choose to mail in a check instead.
Other ways in which this activity could be used are: ask the group to contribute money and donate the money to RIF in memory of past members of your congregation or deceased congregational ministers (RIF accepts a fifteen dollar minimum); or, if your congregation celebrates a Blessing of the Animals, decorate your donation table with children's books about animals and seek contributions in honor of deceased pets.
After the event, discuss with participants what the experience was like for them and what they gained from it.
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Discuss the workshop with your co-leader. Which activities worked best? Which could use improvement? Did the youth appreciate talking about difficult issues? If so, you might find ways to bring more social justice issues or current events into the workshops in the future.
TAKING IT HOME
DURING TODAY'S WORKSHOP...
We read a few poems about people's experiences during difficult times. We thought about our own tough times. We heard a song about hope and wrote a poem based on all the reflections of the day.
REFLECTION QUESTION:
We all have times when we need help to stay hopeful or to act courageously. What have been the sources of that help for you: music, people, or inspirational words?
EXPLORE THE TOPICS FURTHER WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS...
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: THE THEMES OF HYMNS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants search for hymns that have themes of freedom, hope, or the difficulties of life.
Distribute hymnals. Ask participants to search for hymns that reflect the themes you discussed in today's workshop (freedom, death, hope, and—if you used Alternate Activity 1—courage). Some examples from Singing the Living Tradition include Hymn 4, "I Brought My Spirit to the Sea" (renewal of spirit); Hymn 6, "Just As Long As I Have Breath"; Hymn 112, "Do You Hear?"; Hymn 159, "This Is My Song"; and Hymn 346, "Come, Sing a Song with Me."
Invite volunteers to read the lyrics aloud. Discuss how the hymns relate to the themes and their tone and mood. Suggest to participants that singing a favorite hymn can be a tactic for remaining hopeful during hard times. If participants find a hymn they like in particular, invite them to copy the words into their journals so they can practice singing it.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 2: UUS WORKING TOWARD FREEDOM (15 MINUTES)
Description of Activity
If you have time for a longer workshop, extend the topics discussed in Activities 1-4. One way to do this is by noting Unitarian Universalists who have worked to alleviate society of the ills addressed in the poems in Handouts 1-4.
If your group is well informed, you might simply ask them to tell about UUs who worked to end war, racism, mistreatment of animals, or classism. If help is needed, talk about the following UUs (or use your own examples):
After this discussion, ask the youth to identify people in their congregation who work towards social justice. Be ready to supply examples. Remind participants of activities your congregation participates in that might have included the youth. These could include marches, demonstrations, letter-writing campaigns, activities of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee or working with other faith organizations in your community. When they stand beside the disenfranchised, demanding equal rights, they are following a long line of UU activist and living out their UU values.
Including All Participants
When noting members of your congregation, include a diverse group of activists.
EXPLORING OUR VALUES THROUGH POETRY: WORKSHOP 7:
HANDOUT 1: END OF A DISCUSSION WITH A JAILER
Samih Al-Qasim (1939- ), translated by Abdullah al-Udhari
From the window of my small cell
I can see trees smiling at me,
Roofs filled with my people,
Windows weeping and praying for me.
From the window of my small cell
I can see your large cell.
EXPLORING OUR VALUES THROUGH POETRY: WORKSHOP 7:
HANDOUT 2: ANIMAL LIBERATION
Genny Lim
Other than a chickadee which I bought from
a pick-up truck vendor many, many years ago
I had never purchased a live animal
Today I went to Chinatown and parked on the south end of Grant
I walked down the street combing the poultry shops for a live duck
Most of the old markets had been shut down
under pressure from the Animal Humane Society
No more cages piled high on the sidewalks with the odor of fowl
or loose feathers dusting the already acrid air
Wooden crates jammed with roosters, hens and pigeons
Barrels of live frogs and turtles had been replaced by
Spanking new tourists emporiums spilling silk brocades
Chinaware and hand-carved deities from their over-stocked shelves
I make my way through the crowds into one market displaying
Roasted ducks hanging upside-down
I ask the proprietress, "Do you have any live ducks?"
She points next door
I walk into a long, narrow room with wooden cages kept behind a glass partition
"Do you have any live ducks?" I ask the old poker-faced poultry man
Without blinking, he asks "How many?"
I ask him "How much for one?" in Chinese
He answers "Sup-yih-gah-bun!"
Twelve dollars and fifty cents for the life of a duck?
I reply, "One!"
He turns around and opens the door to one of the crates
and reaches in and pulls out a big, speckled brown duck
He grabs it by the neck and ties its feet together
Then he stuffs the bird into a paper bag punctured with holes at the top
I pay him my money and he hands over the bag
I am so excited my heart is racing all the way out the door
I clutch the duck's warm body against my chest and
It feels like that of my baby before she had grown into a young lady
Hard to believe nineteen years had passed since
I had held her tiny body to me just like this
I walk the length of Grant Avenue with my contraband
I'm relieved I don't have a ticket and place the duck in the back of the car
I head out to the park with a heightened awareness of my sudden new surroundings
The buildings are unusually vivid, the pedestrians unusually alive
I park at Stow Lake and walk around till I find a spot near the reeds obscured from view
I walk down the embankment with my heart throbbing
I open the bag half expecting the duck to bite me
But she sits there calmly and patiently and as I untie
the right band of wire wrapped around her legs
Talking to her gently as I free her
I'm afraid to upset her by picking her up so
I turn the bag upside down and literally pour her into the water
She tumbles into the lake and as soon as her body makes contact with liquid
There is instant recognition
She dives into the pool and emerges with her feathers wet and glistening
She spreads her wings wide for the first time and quacks with joy
She dives in and out again and again
Baptizing her entire body with miraculous water
My heart sings to see this once captive duck
Frolic in the lake, diving and dancing, flapping her wings
as flocks of black guinea hens pass by in cool demeanor
And proud mallards observe their new member with calm disinterest
She quacks and cavorts like a prisoner released from death row
I sigh, never taking my eyes off her for a moment
Until she is joined by an identical speckled brown duck
They swim together past the boaters, past the reeds beyond sight
"Free!" I breathe, "at last!" One life saved for another one lost
Good-bye my darling, Danielle!
May your consciousness leap into the vast and familiar depths of Sukhavati!
And may you reunite quickly with the hosts of enlightened beings
Who have gone on ahead of you and who will soon follow!
EXPLORING OUR VALUES THROUGH POETRY: WORKSHOP 7:
HANDOUT 3: POEM FOR THE YOUNG WHITE MAN WHO ASKED ME HOW I, AN INTELLIGENT, WELL-READ PERSON, COULD BELIEVE IN THE WAR BETWEEN THE RACES
"Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person Could Believe in the War Between Races" is from Emplumada, by Lorna Dee Cervantes, copyright 1982. All rights are controlled by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA 15260. Used by permission of the University of Pittsburgh Press.
In my land there are no distinctions.
The barbed wire politics of oppression
have been torn down long ago. The only reminder
of past battles, lost or won, is a slight
rutting in the fertile fields.
In my land
people write poems about love,
full of nothing but contented childlike syllables.
Everyone reads Russian short stories and weeps.
There are no boundaries.
There is no hunger, no
complicated famine or greed.
I am not a revolutionary.
I don't even like political poems.
Do you think I can believe in a war between the races?
I can deny it. I can forget about it
when I'm safe,
living on my own continent of harmony
and home, but I am not
there.
I believe in revolution
because everywhere the crosses are burning,
sharp-shooting goose-steppers round every corner,
there are snipers in the schools...
(I know you don't believe this,
You think this is nothing
but faddish exaggeration. But they
are not shooting at you.)
I'm marked by the color of my skin.
The bullets are discrete and designed to kill slowly.
They are aiming at my children.
These are facts.
Let me show you my wounds: my stumbling mind, my
"excuse me" tongue, and this
nagging preoccupation
with the feeling of not being good enough.
These bullets bury deeper than logic.
Racism is not intellectual.
I cannot reason these scars away.
Outside my door
there is a real enemy
who hates me.
I am a poet
who yearns to dance on rooftops,
to whisper delicate lines about joy
and the blessings of human understanding.
I try. I go to my land, my tower of words and
bolt the door, but the typewriter doesn't fade out
the sounds of blasting and muffled outrage.
My own days bring me slaps on the face.
Every day I am deluged with reminders
that this is not
my land
and this is my land.
I do not believe in the war between the races.
but in this country
there is war.
EXPLORING OUR VALUES THROUGH POETRY: WORKSHOP 7:
HANDOUT 4: A CHANGE IS GONNA COME
A CHANGE IS GONNA COME. Words and Music by SAM COOKE. Copyright 1964 (Renewed) ABKCO MUSIC, INC. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission of ALFRED PUBLISHING CO., INC.
These are the lyrics to a song you will hear.
I was born by the river in a little tent
Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die
Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
I go to the movie and I go downtown
Somebody keep telling me don't hang around
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
Then I go to my brother
And I say brother help me please
But he winds up knocking me
Back down on my knees
There been times that I thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long, a long time coming
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will
FIND OUT MORE
You can find "End of a Discussion with a Jailer" in the anthology, The Space between Our Footsteps, by Naomi Shihab Nye (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1998). Samih Al-Qasim is featured in the PBS Online NewsHour poetry series (at www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/entertainment/poetry/profiles/poet_alqasim.html)web pages.
"Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person, Could Believe in the War between Races" and "Animal Liberation" are from the anthology, From Totems To Hip-Hop: A Multicultural Anthology of Poetry Across the Americas, 1900-2002, edited by Ishmael Reed (New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003). Poets.org has a short biography of Lorna Dee Cervantes (at www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/80).
You can find an interview with Genny Lim (at #gennytop) at a website created by Jaime Wright, a Ph.D. student at University of California, Berkeley, and the Bush Foundation (at #Lim) (an organization that funds the arts) has a biographical paragraph about Lim.
For a bit of history about "A Change Is Gonna Come," go to Songfacts (at www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=3673) or Rolling Stone (at 209.85.207.104/search?q=cache:hpKUpSKCbaUJ:www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6595857/a_change_is_gonna_come+song+a+change+gonna+come&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=7&gl=us&client=firefox-a). The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum (at www.rockhall.com/inductee/sam-cooke) has a short biography of Sam Cooke.
Answers.com (at www.answers.com/topic/whitney-moore-jr-young) has biographical information on Whitney Young.
The Unitarian Universalist Historical Society has a biographical dictionary. It includes an entry on Viola Liuzzo (at www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/violaliuzzo.html), Bertrand Russell (at www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/russellfamily.html), and Clarence Skinner (at www25-temp.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/clarencerussellskinner.html).
Go to Unitarian Universalists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (at 209.85.215.104/search?q=cache:8XPGzaSxoqEJ:www25.uua.org/ufeta/henrybergh.htm+uu+founder+of+humane+society&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=5&gl=us&client=firefox-a) for more information on Henry Bergh.