7
street roots
Aug. 5, 2011
e rf
Summer Art
Workshops at the
Downtown Chapel
Guests o f the Downtown Chapel’s daily
Hospitality Center are m aking art this
summer, working in clay, pastels,
acrylic and other media as part o f the
sum m er arts program. Last week, local
author M artha G ies convened a
writing workshop. A few spontaneous
responses to prompts appear below.
Carleen Corbett reads her story to her writing class in the basement o f Portland’s Downtown Chapel.
Homeless, pregnant
teens
can’t forget a time
talking to a psychologist
about being homeless.
The more I try to reason,
it all comes out to mental
illness or alcohol and
drugs, or abuse.
‘ My Own experience I
can carry for a lifetime:
there’s no sleeping out
there, and you have to wait
for a place to rest, and
watch youRback from strangers. There’s no
time to stay in one place. The key was to keep on
moving on.
I saw eight women living outside and today, four
of them are pregnant
I
-T Y R O N E REARDON
hen I first came on the
street, in 2005, one of
the first people I met was a
pregnant 14-year-old girl. My
mind went back to my
daughter, m y youngest, who
at that time was 12, and my
heart split open so wide. I
stuck to her like glue and
Gayle Johnston was very fortunate to get her
in the women’s safe shelter
at the Same time I got in.
Chaplain J.R. at Portland. Rescue Mission, got her
in to Shepherd’s Door recovery program four days
before I got in there. She stayed at Shepherd’s
Door for two years, completed the program, and
now is raising her child and has her own place in
the same apartment complex as her parents. She
attends East Hill Foursquare Church in Gresham.
Karen and I keep in touch, and my granddaughter
and her daughter play together.
W
— GAYLE JOHNSTON
If I had wings
f I had wings I’d fly home to Montana
where my parents are buried and visit their
graves; put flowers on Grandpa’s grave on
Veteran’s Day. I’d fly to Houston, where my
boyfriend Wayne is and see if the hurricane
hit today. I’d fly him here, fly him to see his
grandbaby and his brother.
I’d fly to see my sisters in Kansas and
Rtionda
Montana, and my older brother, too. I’d just
Radmoski
hover over Utah and check on my little
brother, then fly to heaven to Mom and Dad
to report, and visit Grandpa and Grandma.
I’d ride my horse Dusty and give him wings, too, so he’d be a
Pegasus in heaven.
I
The loss of a pet
ne time in my life I had a grasp on a
brindle p et
Passionate and loving was that dog in
my abode.
. Overly protective she became on. her
home ground:
She bit an outsider, what a terrible day.
Sad it was when I had to sign her death.
I still have dreams of the loving brindle.
In my heart I sigh and crystals fall down
to the ground.
O
-M A R K SPRINGS
remember my firsi
relationship with a
dog. My sister
brought him home
as a stray. I was only
four years old. I
played with him and
told him all my
secrets. I loved to
curl up with him
Carleen Corbett
where I felt safe.
One day he was
hit by a car. He
wasn’t killed, but he couldn’t move. My
parents put him on a mat in the dining
room. Every day I would sit beside him
and talk to him. We couldn’t play anymore,
but he was still my friend. I don’t know
how long that arrangement went on, but it
seemed a long time.
Then one day I came into the room and
he was gone. My mother had had him put
to sleep.
I
. - RHONDA RADOMSKI
f I had wings I would find myself flying up to the heavens where 1
could be close to my father’s house. My life would be the most
wonderful thing if I had wings.
I would find the largest mountain to fly around and look at God’s
beautiful earth as it is from high in the sky, I would fly to the ocean
and fly the holiday and the night, until I couldn’t fly anymore.
Back here, I’d go to funny and dreaming places, just to find a
little peace in the world.
I
-P A M E L A BRADFORD
-C A R LE E N CORBETT
Money
wish I had more, heck, I wish I had even some. My current boyfriend says I don’t save. I say I don’t
make enough to save’ I do day labor and try to get a regular job. They don’t seem to be hiring.
Every now and again, I make enough to be comfortable - homeless. This needs to be constant. For
there’s stuff I need and want that the homeless services either don’t provide or have no funding for.
It’s hard to sit here in the city and watch people who have money. Wish I were in the country.
I
- RHONDA RADOMSKI
oney is for greedy people, except when you need it to buy food or pay for housing. People think
it gives them power but they are sadly mistaken.
As easily as you were put on this earth you can be take off, either by natural death or by a sickness
or by someone killing you.
.
.
, —CHRISPIKE
M
P H O T O B Y K EN H A W K IN S
Writer and educator Martha ^fes listens as a homeless writer reads her
short story to her class.