Last week was one of my favorite weeks of summer: five days spent with young women in grades 8 – 12 at “Writing Camp for (a) Change!” During those days, we challenge one another, learn from one another, support and encourage one another. Girls and adult facilitators alike.

A favorite exercise this week was personifying Patience and Impatience; and having pairs create a scenario in which patience/impatience meet and work something through together. Another prompt of the day was writing about an experience of patience, inspired by Kay Ryan’s poem of the same name. This is what came to me in the first fast-write of the day:

PATIENCE
a landscape of inclusion –
you, me, wide
and sustainable –
a ribbon of waiting
that winds toward the finish
bearing fruits and gifts
beyond imagining,
a feast of color
hard work and insight
harvesting a solid life
from far and near.

swb