the MISA life.

It’s Wednesday at MISA.  Three days of class behind me; only two to go.  What have I been up to since I last wrote?  Let me tell you –

Class is all about reflective writing/journaling and different art techniques, all the while talking about our inner critics and inner heroes.  We all have them – voices that live inside of us.  Talking about them is getting a little new age-y for me at times but it’s okay.  It’s okay to go beyond the comfort zone.  [Right?]  While talking about the inner critics and inner heroes, we’re creating 5×7 cards that speak to us in some way – hopefully that somehow reflect our inner heroes.  They so far include art techniques and collage or found poetry.  Soon they will also include journaling on one side.

Found poetry is so far my favorite.  I’m a poet by no means [and don’t like reading poems either], but this I can get behind.  The object of found poetry is to take pages from a book or catalog and begin by simply cutting our words or phrases that catch our eye.  Words or phrases that stick out to us.  Once you have a pile of words and phrases in front of you, a poem appears.  You move words, phrases, start over, and move another word.  Sure enough, a poem [in the loosest sense of the word] emerges.  You trust the process and it’s a little crazy.  A little uncomfortable.  But super therapeutic in a way.  And plus I love the way the text looks cut up and rearranged, especially when using phrases from different books and typefaces.  Here is one of my poems from the day, mounted on watercolor paper I colored with ink –

Deep, right?  [Nope.  Not at all.  It will pale in comparison to my artful classmates tomorrow during show and tell … but I’m not supposed to compare.  It’s the thief of joy.  My poems are what they need to be.]

In addition to class, I explored La Pointe [the solo town on the island] tonight with a couple classmates and have also taken the ferry back to Bayfield to explore.  That’s what I did last night by myself and it was lovely.  I love taking the ferry.  I explored a bookstore, a quilt shop, and then parked at a coffee shop to do my class homework before eating at an outdoor bar. It was only a couple hours on the mainland but super fun to explore.  Plus, on the return trip, the ferry was captained by the cute, young captain.  Bearded, lovely, married-according-to-the-ring-on-his-hand captain.  [All the lovely bearded captains are.  Am I right?]