Women and words meet at retreat

"Here I am, timekeeper for adolescent fish," a woman named Donna read. "And they can shake these moments off like the water they shake from their hair."

There was a sharp, respectful intake of breath from the ten women in the room. Almost immediately, ten versions of, "Oh, that's good," and "How wonderful," filled the space.

At the recent Women's Writing Retreat at Pyramid Life Center in Paradox, women from dozens of locations, professions, and life experiences came together to share their love of the written word.

Rhythm and rhyme

During workshops, aspiring wordsmiths crafted poems and essays whose consonants and syllables thudded and crashed in sync with the sound of drums played by fellow classmates. These classes provided a platform for women to jump out of their own skins and into their characters' -- such as the poem above, written from the perspective of a stopwatch holder at a girls' swim meet in Boise.

Other morning courses included expressive arts, drama, mystery writing, poetry, journal writing, and the essay.

In the afternoons, the women took advantage of Pyramid Lake's Adirondack surroundings and hiked, swam, boated or napped on a nearby hammock. At night, they gathered to listen to readings from fellow writers, amateur and professional.

Two by two

One morning's poetry workshop centered around the week's ongoing project: a "duet" in which two members of the class teamed up to write a conversation between two unlikely subjects: conductor and baton, wave and shore, mother and baby daughter, soldier and his love.

Aspiring poet Andrea Sobecki stood in front of the class and read her work aloud as the class beat out steady quarter-notes on tribal drums to help her keep her rhythm. Ms. Sobecki takes care of her ailing parents on a full-time basis, and likes to use poetry to express her hopes and concerns.

"This is the way I voice what's happening in my life, and share that with other people," she said, clutching a college-ruled notebook filled with tight blue handwriting. "Here, when you share your writing, you find out you're not the only one who feels like this. At the reading, you get a lot of love back, and that makes you more courageous to tackle difficult things in your writing."

New outlook

Ms. Sobecki, currently a non-practicing Catholic, said that coming to the Pyramid Lake retreat each year has given her a different perspective on the religion.

"When I grew up, religion was very severe," she said. "We lived in a rural community, and I didn't have exposure to sisters and priests. Since coming here, I have seen a whole different side of the Catholic Church. I'm so impressed with the nuns here. I didn't know they could be this way."

For some attendees, the single-gender retreat was an opportunity to take adventurous social steps as well as hone their creative talents. Gloria Dusek of Loudonville appreciated how the women at Pyramid Lake got to know each other not through family stories and work relationships, but through creative expression.

Walk the talk

"You're talking about writing," she explained. "You learn about these women through their writing. As writers we're able to tell our stories, do things like describe a sunset. Writers see in many dimensions. It's just the way we are. Everyone has stories, and we've very supportive of one another."

Seated near the cold ashes of the beach fire circle, Toronto resident Clare Kuehn stared wide-eyed at a dragonfly that had just landed on her knee. As part of the expressive arts class going on in the boathouse, she'd been sketching the mountains surrounding the lake -- and now, she sketched the tiny visitor.

"That was incredible," she breathed. "What a privilege."

On one level, she said, some women talked about the one-gender retreat in terms of being with women and getting back in touch with femininity. Not so for Ms. Kuehn.

"It's about being with women as people. I don't want to limit my relationships with people by labeling them. You can be people with women. We're seeing each other completely as human beings," she explained.

Sound of silence

Ms. Kuehn enjoyed the sense of "quietude and quiescence" that she said pervaded the retreat. According to Ms. Kuehn, women who are writing -- and struggling to write -- are told to respect the silence of the lake and of others, a chance they don't often get in the outside world.

Former journalist Janice Valverde, a Catholic from Boston, comes to the retreat every year to regain a "sense of personal freedom. You leave your responsibilities behind. No cars, no keys, no computer."

A short distance off, Massachusetts resident Annie Burke leans over to examine a few curled, brown leaves and wonders if they'll fit well with her Expressive Arts project.

"I come here to be renewed, to have my cup filled, because you can't give from an empty one," she said. "I combine art and writing -- it's more of an avocation for me, a way of expression. It allows me to do things I would not be able to express otherwise -- my grief for friends who are gone, my grief for times that are gone."

Back in the poetry class, however, grief was the last thing on the minds of the ten women gathered in the circle. They laughed uproariously at a particularly misty, sentimental duet poem written by two women impersonating a soldier and his far-away girlfriend.

"This could be a reality show, don't you think?" said one participant. "This is wonderful."

(7/31/03) [[In-content Ad]]