Tag: writing group

Shannon Graham

This Writing Group submission was written by CSCLA Participant, Shannon Graham, with the prompt, “Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” – Mary Oliver. If you left the door open to the unimaginable, what would you hope would walk through? Love.  A few months before we knew your cancer had spread to your…

Letter to Cancer – by Valerie Gillet-Bourne

This Writing Group submission by CSCLA participant Valerie Gillet-Bourne was written with the prompt, “Write a letter to cancer.” I don’t want to talk to you, Cancer. You come rolling blithely into our lives, without introduction, just shoving your way in and then creeping around for months and years as we try to get you…

Greeting Card Writing Prompt – The “Cancer Card”

Writing Group submission by CSCLA participant, Ruth Brandt—a Los Angeles comedian who interpreted this writing prompt with humor. Enjoy reading! Writing Prompt: Imagine you are creating a greeting card for yourself. What would the front of the card say? OR, Design a greeting card for a life event that doesn’t usually get a card. The…

“Silence” – by Alexis Fish

Writing Prompt:         “The answers you seek never come when the mind is busy, they come when the mind is still, when silence speaks the loudest”  – Leon Brown “Silence! You are no longer welcome in my home or near my child.” Silence… No more invitations to Tuesday night dinner No more group text …

“Being in the Writing Group” – by Anonymous

I love writing. Ironically, my cancer journey brought me back to writing. Despite the clouds brought about by this journey, writing seems to be the sun beneath it, like a blank piece of paper just waiting for the ink or for my fingertips to type the letters from my ever so busy brain. I remember…

“Letter to My Body” – Danielle Gruberger

My dear fragile yet resilient body, Look at you go! After years and years of a missing appetite, congratulations on your newfound enjoyment of meals with friends, appreciating food as fuel, quickly learning which foods do not serve you and adjusting intuitively.  The way you have been reacting to fear and trauma just speaks to how deeply…

“Ask Me” – Paula J. Shadle, Ph.D.

I am constantly asked how I am, ever since the cancer diagnosis. Total strangers ask me  what kind or cancer I have, as if they have a need to know; and whether I am “OK” or “cured” … and, delicately, what my prognosis might be.  I dislike these questions intensely because they cross the usual…