Wilderness and Solitude

Yesterday at our workshop at the Vet Center in Brooklyn we discussed these topics. Then we wrote about it. You can too! Are you in search of solitude? How does solitude affect you? Are you trying to get into the wilderness? What are you searching for there? When you have been there, what is it like, what do you discover, think, feel? What does the wild offer you? ...all this while the noise of NYC bounced around us...

Here's what I wrote:

I'm not searching for solitude
just silence sometimes
I wonder if I can find myself
in the hustle and the rushing
If I sat down on the couch
and really looked at myself
peered down into my hands
what would the lines read
what do I really want and need?
Even in the slices of silence
there's all the chatter inside
and I just can't slow me down
and in trees and mountains
I search, never sitting still
for more than a moment
I"m only full of wonder
for what I really want from
solitude and wilderness
what I might answer
to these never-ending questions
there is so much life outside
and inside
yet, we remain focused
and together
and I'm deeply grateful


Lovella Calica (civilian, project founder)

NYC May Day events and performance!

SATURDAY, MAY DAY:
10 AM-3 PM: Wellness opportunities (Acupuncture, Massage, Reiki, etc.) at the Brooklyn Vet Center
11 AM-1 PM: Brunch/Lunch/Potluck with the community (invite your pals)
1-3 PM: Writing Workshop for Veterans at the Brooklyn Vet Center
4-6 PM: NYU’s Veterans Writing Workshop Reading at NYU’s Creative Writers House
58 West 10th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues)
7-11 PM: Warrior Writers Performance fundraiser in Williamsburg
7 Dunham Place, 4N , Brooklyn, NY 11211 – rsvp: sarah@rabbitmafia.com

Rabbit Mafia invites you to celebrate the artistic voices of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) with
a night of music, art and spoken word. Expect the unexpected with readings by veterans via Warrior Writers and an installation of works by Combat Paper.
Cocktails and appetizers will be provided by Rabbit Mafia, with recent ICE (Institute for Culinary Education) graduate and veteran Steve Mortillo.
$5 suggested donation / Artwork and books for sale

spring ahead...usin our imaginations...

I imagine...

an editing collective...

a giant exhibit of veterans visual artwork...

jam sessions, singing and making songs...

Warrior Writers Summer Retreat – West Coast – 1^st week of August, 1-8...

Warrior Writers Shwag (t-shirts, stickers, pins)...

Warrior Writers Fundraisers this summer – for the retreat...

Veterans writing in all kinds of magazines and newsletters and journals...

get in touch with each other/us/you/we/they/all...we gonna make it happen!

lets do it!!!

These Boots

This is a work in progress. For some odd reason-when I'm in spanish class I start scribbling about these boots-my boots-ur boots. Any suggestions are welcome-and constructive crit too!

These boots were never comfortable
and they always meant work.
I must have been crazy to want a pair
so desperately.
Little did I know-
they would change my life forever.
I loved my boots though.
Took great pride in the fabulous shine.
Tramped all over South Korea.
That sure was a good time,
yet lots of training-I was glad to leave
behind.
They've been everywhere man.
Georgia was the next stop.
These boots.
These boots are tan;
stained with the sandy dirt, sewage, and blood.
Not my blood.
That sentence makes me smile.
Not a smile energized with happiness,
rather gratefulness-for it wasn't me.
These boots have walked upon the Holy Land.
But I couldn't find anything holy about it.
These boots have become a part of me.
I have grown comfortable in these boots,
and they comfort me.
These boots carry me from place to place.
These boots have a story.
One they'll never tell.

AS

Thoughts from Philly Retreat

Here are the haikus that I had written down but never posted. Enjoy!

Standing on my box
looking at my enemy
smash the mirror please


Energy passes
from one of us to the next
as if one big breath


Love is warm and kind
thinking of you all the time
your hand rests in mine


Thanks for the healing
you have put my mind at ease
calming my bad energy


Tired of this war
tired of this fight for oil
must rally for PEACE

Help Wanted

Independently open minded,
yet highly stereotyped.
Typically loud, but keeps
secret better than anyone.
A foggy window,
yet an open book.
Independently,
lonely at times.

March Madness

And that it was! March was a tough month for me, which is why I never posted the haikus written in my notebook, nor did I write a single thing that wasn't asked of me at school. Depression, weeks of it, sleepless nights, and reclusiveness. We must learn to not hide or barracade ourselves during times like these. This, I have learned.

I have found strength within the good friends I surrounded myself with and have gotten myself the help I need to continue healing. I will definitely be posting this month.......stay tuned for future blogs! LOL