Photo by Nancy Morgan
Eight participants gathered at the Gatehouse for a writing workshop led by Nancy Morgan with the theme “A Few of My Favorite Things” for February, the month of passion. Information was offered about creating a list poem, with examples of poems by Pablo Neruda and Alice Miller recited. After composing and sharing poems in progress, the group went outdoors to find favorite things in nature and create a piece of ephemeral art, or art intended to disappear. An alluring arrangement of leaves, pods, stones, branches and rotting wood teaming with worms covered the picnic table, leaving evidence of our work for Morven Park visitors to ponder and hopefully contribute to. Each writer explained what caught their eye and led them to select their found art. Often color, texture, shape and form were the attraction, along with signs of spring and thoroughly chewed items that clearly had provided a hearty feast for winter creatures. Our monthly workshops enable us to examine nature as it changes in response to the seasons and whims of weather, like the Osage Orange seed pods that are spring green when they fall from the tree and slowly turn to gold and bronze over the winter.