Judith van Praag
Your story matters.
Speaker 2:I'm Allison. This is the Where I'm From podcast, podcast, where guests join me to share their version of George L. Lyon's iconic poem, Where I'm From, and to chat a bit about their experience writing and reflecting on memory and childhood. It's a space for everyone and engages with my total belief that each of us has a unique and powerful story to tell. Good morning.
Speaker 2:We're here. We're gonna listen to Judith read her Where I'm From column. She's the fourth person to join me, and I'm so thrilled to have her.
Speaker 3:Hi, we did it.
Speaker 4:We did it.
Speaker 3:I knew we could. How are you?
Speaker 4:I'm great. How are you?
Speaker 3:Good. I'm very excited to hear you're bold this morning it's a good way to get us into this holiday weekend.
Speaker 4:Think said at least three words.
Speaker 3:Luckily I didn't memorize it so I'm not gonna be you know, surprised. I'm ready to hear your reading unless there's anything you want to say before you start.
Speaker 4:No, I'm ready to go.
Speaker 3:Okay, go for it. Where I'm
Speaker 4:from? I'm from one knife cuts all, red leather sheaths protecting blade and fingers. From sunlight soap, potassium permanganate and Vim. I am from Metaflonsoflag, clean enough for the eye, artistic, bohemian, a raven's nest. I am from reading under the elves, dandelion stains, daisy chains, and horse manure, earthy, solid, fertilizing.
Speaker 4:I'm from New Year's Eve starting the morning of the thirty first. Red beet, herring salad, canned salmon, and refusing to kiss. From JP with the golden hands and twenty years younger, Doe Eyed Nita. I'm from volatile and patient, patient. From Passover Seder to Christmas carols and pagan prayers.
Speaker 4:I'm from the sandy North Sea beach and Prague in the East. I'm from slow cooked offal, snapping beans and peeling oranges and apples countless ways. I'm from coffee black or Olay, mocha cake and kugle with pears. From the grandmother with a black purse, the other who refused to wear the cloak of mourning, young widow with three teens and a 20 year old after the flu of nineteen eighteen, took her husband without warning. I'm from diamond cutting, and pencil pushing.
Speaker 4:I'm rough, out of hiding, and eager to shine. Thank you, Judith. That
Speaker 3:was beautiful.
Speaker 4:Thank you.
Speaker 3:What was your experience working on this or writing it?
Speaker 4:I was surprised.
Speaker 2:In what way?
Speaker 4:I don't usually work with templates. Mhmm. And I found the imagery was coming to me pretty quickly and took me back to my childhood. And I have that knife here.
Speaker 3:Oh wow! I
Speaker 4:actually went to look for it this morning couldn't find it but here it is. So that's the knife that cuts all.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of history in that knife.
Speaker 4:Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's powerful. We have a old knife here as well. There's something about the handle and the blade. Really, it takes you back to a different time for sure.
Speaker 4:And holding it, well, I feel really connected to my father. He had it on the table next to his plate and he opened letters with it. He would show me how to peel an orange Mhmm. And cut an orange, and he would clean the nails of his fingers with it.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Yeah. They didn't have a like we do where we have a whole thing of knives. You know? They don't they didn't have a butcher block full of knives.
Speaker 3:They had a good knife that did all the things. Yeah.
Speaker 4:I think my my parents did have all kinds of knives, but I think he took this knife with him as a soldier in World War one. Imagine that.
Speaker 3:It's hard to imagine. I mean
Speaker 4:Yeah. My father was born in 1898.
Speaker 3:Wow. Wow. He saw a lot in his life. That's a really historic time to live through so many changes.
Speaker 4:And he lived through the Holocaust too. Wow. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So did you find that you were flooded with thought? Did you find that you took a specific direction with what you remembered or what you chose to write down? Or did it feel inclusive? Or did you feel like you had a point of view about it? Or how did you experience that?
Speaker 4:I definitely went to my childhood and I wanted others to be able to see imagery, even if it's their own, that will connect them to my story, makes them perhaps remember their own dandelion stains. And who knows? Maybe they will write the poem next.
Speaker 3:That's the hope, right? Is that it encourages people to write their own stories because we all have a story. Exactly. And I think sometimes we forget the importance of our own story.
Speaker 4:True. And we also sometimes need people who give us a hand or show us the way like you did. I'm so tickled to be with you. You know, it is new. Well, it's not so new medium, but it's new for me to be on a live Instagram conversation.
Speaker 3:It's fun. It's, I think there are, it's going to be a lot of people. This is their first one. I'm going to be, I'm getting better at, okay, we're to practice and then we do it. But now once you've done one, can just do as many as you'd like.
Speaker 3:No fear. You could just do it. Not knowing can be a barrier and now it's not.
Speaker 4:This is somewhat of a podcast, isn't it for you?
Speaker 3:I guess, yeah. I mean it's just without the editing, which is the, website, it just is live and then we can share it, which is about the, the level of time that I have to do. So I, give to it. So it works, it works well for me. Plus, I like the, sort of impromptu interaction of it.
Speaker 3:You know, it's completely unscripted and we just chat. I like hearing people's stories. And without the prompt, without the template, it takes a long time to get to these things in a conversation. It may never come to these things in a conversation. So I love the shorthand of the poetry.
Speaker 3:I feel like I know each person who shares their poem with me so much better because of it. I mean, and that's such a gift to me because I find small talk a bit tedious if I'm being honest. So it's like, oh great. I don't need to do that. I can just become friends with people and get to know them in this format, which to me is a joy.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's interesting. You're a screenwriter, aren't you? Yeah. I mean, that's your gateway into the writing world is screenwriting. So what made you take a poetry workshop?
Speaker 3:Well, it was funny. I took the workshop because of another woman binder who's this writing group that many of us are in. She posted about this, workshop she was doing. It's actually about, health. It's about being a page.
Speaker 3:Oh gosh. What's the word they use? I'm gonna blank on it. But it's about being more involved in the healthcare system and sharing our stories as patients and providers as a way to become advocates. And this was the exercise she used, one of the exercises, to get people to start talking about themselves.
Speaker 3:Because a lot of the people involved aren't writers. And so it's to get them to just kind of open up to the process of telling their own stories. And I, as many of us, took a writing course at one point, it was a poetry course, and I was told I wasn't good at it. And I think many people have had that experience where they take a course that's artistic in some way, and they're told like, Oh, this isn't really for You know, you're, you're not really good at this. And I definitely had that in the poetry class.
Speaker 3:And so writing this was a great experience for me personally. And it was also cathartic. Like, that was one person's opinion of my writing. Don't make decisions about my creative life. I do.
Speaker 3:And I thought, how many of us have that same experience with poetry? How many of us think, oh, well, I don't. I'm not good like that. I'm not that kind of writer. So I just was like, well, this would be fun.
Speaker 3:We'll see if people join me. I hope people join me, and and and people have. And it's really I I have I love getting poems in my inbox. It's a real privilege. So that's the answer.
Speaker 4:You're so welcoming. I really appreciate it. Very relaxed, really good interview or two, I think.
Speaker 3:Oh, thanks, Judith. I appreciate Have
Speaker 4:I heard your poem? No.
Speaker 3:I I posted it, like, on the original post. So I was thinking one of these days, I'll do one of those separately. I had it on the back up in case you didn't show up. Was like, well, if Judith doesn't show up, it's going to be my backup. I'll read mine.
Speaker 3:But I'm going to just do that one of these days, just pop on here and do it.
Speaker 4:If you want to do it and you want a sparring partner, I'll be happy to get you
Speaker 3:to Thank you. Okay. We'll schedule that. That would be a joy. Let's do that.
Speaker 4:Sounds good.
Speaker 3:Okay. Do you have any other thoughts before we sign off?
Speaker 4:Yeah. I'm in a Toastmasters group. And if I say or ah or okay or I'm, you know, then I get marked for one of those words. So I said, ah.
Speaker 3:You'll hear about later. They can come watch the recording and they could grade you later. Get back to you with you can send it to them and say for your review what let me know what you think uh-uh oh I thought you were glorious and I appreciate you sharing your poem with us and I look forward to, let's see if we have any comments. We have thank you and yes and yay and hearts and hand claps and so I am not the only one who enjoyed it. Everyone enjoyed it.
Speaker 3:And thank you for taking the time and sharing this part of yourself with us. We are grateful.
Speaker 4:Thanks for inviting me. It's wonderful. I really appreciate it. And I look forward to hearing all the other brave souls who come on camera.
Speaker 3:Me too. Bye. Bye. Have
Speaker 4:a good Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3:You too. Bye. Bye.
Speaker 2:Thank you for taking the time to be with us. If you like what you heard, please share, review, and subscribe. You can learn more about the project and see a list of participants on my website, alisenshelton.com. We know you have so many ways to spend your time. Thank you for spending some with us.
Speaker 2:And finally, a huge thank you to producers Ria Kerrigan and Paul LeBuggen for their artistic and technical know how, generosity, enthusiasm, and for being wonderful people who I'm grateful to call for.
Speaker 1:I love my world. I love my world. I love my world. Everything is just right. I just love singing about the world and how much I love it.
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