Six words to frame a statement of personal freedoms. A challenge to create and share one’s core truths and values without self-criticism or preemptive excuses, and instead let the work speak for itself. That was the premise of WKMS’s President’s Day “I Declare” workshop.
On Monday, Feb. 16, “I Declare” began a poetry workshop series themed for the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Constance Alexander, an award-winning poet, playwright and civic journalist, was the event’s speaker. She works with WKMS every year to celebrate National Poetry Month through writing workshops.
“We all have important things to say, and we don’t get to say them enough or we’re not asked to share them,” Alexander said. “I hope that people will write and express things that are important to them, that they find funny or that they’re angry about.”
Alexander asked participants to draft a list of things they declared themselves free of or free from. After discussing individual declarations from the lists — such as shame, past mistakes, other people’s opinions and fear of the future — a free writing session began. Everyone was encouraged to write, in their own style, on any topic they felt drawn towards. The only requirement for the poems was that each line contained six words to reflect the statement “that all men are created equal” from the Declaration of Independence.
The floor then opened for readings of the poems. Alexander led a discussion after each reading with other attendants sharing their thoughts on the piece.
Laurie Tackett (she/they), a junior geology major, said she enjoyed sharing and discussing the differences and personal qualities in the poems with the rest of the group.
“I think that built a sense of community,” she said. “With everything going on in the world nowadays, I feel like we forget the power of community.”
“Sanity” is Tackett’s poem from the workshop:
Superstition, will I listen, can I
Hear what my mind will say
Enunciate, proclaim my way to something
Sane?
Rules of mine, rules of mind
Can I hear my way, to say
Here I am, no longer staying
Sane?
Tiredness in timelines in the way
The world it be, or as
It seems I’ve lost my way
Sane?
Fear I might, but yet I
Write, still here and staying still
Seeing me, and who I can
Be.
Sane.
The “I Declare” workshop marks the first event with the theme of personal declarations of freedom. WKMS’s next workshop is on Rural Voices Day, March 4, at the Pennyroyal Area Museum in Hopkinsville, Kentucky — with more events to come leading up to July 4. Asia Burnett, WKMS station manager, said the series planning team wanted to highlight personal values, beliefs and current world views from community members.
“I hope the people will come away (from the events) knowing that their voices are important and matter,” Burnett said. “It doesn’t really matter if you are the best poet in the world … the way you see the world is unique and important.”
WKMS welcomes anyone to submit a personal declaration for broadcast. For more information on how to submit a declaration of your own and WKMS’s upcoming events, visit the “I Declare” webpage.
