Poetry on Old T-Shirts

Some time ago (October 27), I shared in this blog about a poetry-writing workshop I had conducted with a drug/alcohol rehab center in Salina and that I hoped to do again in Kansas City. Yesterday, we completed the work with Kansas City’s Healing House, an amazing facility that boasts a success rate of 87%.

Jenny Davis, artist from Lindsborg, toted her fabric shredding machines down I-70 to work with us here, and by Sunday afternoon, participants proudly posed with books whose pages were paper made from old t-shirts. These beautiful books will now be keepers of their poetry written during the past four weeks. It was an exciting project and an exciting moment.

We started the workshop with Haiku poetry (described in the October 27 blog) and progressed to the Acrostic poetry model, using telephone numbers and letters of each participant’s name. Next was Free-verse of any style and any length, followed by the Diamonte poetry pattern. These choices gave writers the freedom to delve into memories of their past, consider what the present offers, and give serious thought to life-after-addiction. They are now ready to write their personal stories on what used to be t-shirts with bad memories, now infused with hopes for what is next.

Jenny guided participants to cut their t-shirts into tiny pieces. All were combined into a group collection of shreds. This mass, mixed with water, was fed into a “beater” that made pulp of the fabric. Wooden screened forms—about 9”X12”—were dipped into the prepared pulp, shaped into pages, and laid out to dry. Once dry, t-shirts were now paper, and more importantly, represented a past transformed into the present with new options. Catharsis through art and smiles, straightened shoulders, and hugs all around.

Northeast News (northeast news.net), on Wednesday, will have an online story and video about the project.

More than one year later, that t-shirt paper has been converted into framed haiku poetry. Thirteen haiku poems, written by Healing House participants, beautifully tucked into 18” x 24” frames are for sale.

Lurking Within

Not only do we have Healing House framed haiku poetry available, we also have a 305-page book of collected poetry written by participants.