Crack Dragon Intersections

Each month, as part of The Stafford Challenge writing group led by Brian Rohr of Portland, Oregon, I look forward to the virtual writing workshops and visits with poets. Earlier this month, Melissa Helton, Director of Literary Arts at the Hindman Settlement School in rural Appalachia, offered a bonus writing workshop in which she shared several of her favorite poets, their poems, and prompts to inspire us to write our own poems. For the next few days, I’ll share the way she presented the information and the way she led attendees to write poetry using mentor poems.

When we arrived in the session, Brian introduced Melissa, who took us on an exploration of four poets by briefly sharing a little about each. Then, she shared a poem that had stuck with her. She read a single poem by each writer and then gave a prompt, inviting us to write our own poems.

One poet was Frank Walker, who wrote the poem Affrilachia on race and cultural identity. After reading this poem aloud, Melissa invited us to write to this prompt: make a list of all the groups with whom you identify, such as churches, hobbyists, sports, regional affiliates, etc. Then, pick two and write about what it’s like in the intersection where two things are an unlikely crosspoint. I thought of the ancient Chinese game of Mahjong, which I have recently begun playing, and how it has now become Americanized and even theme-based.

Mahjong’ing in Georgia