On Friday March 6th, I attended the poetry workshop at The Downtown Oakland Senior Center. Jennifer King was the facilitator and is a graduate of Mills. I got to know the woman sitting next to me before the start of the class. Due to her hearing aids, she wasn’t able to understand me completely, which turn out to be just as well. I found, for the first time when talking with this group, the assumption that upon referring to my ex- that I was referring to a man. She just kept going on about my husband and her husband. It made the use of the wrong pronoun seem like nothing. I was not offended but it was not the space to correct or teach about these assumptions, especially with the lack of hearing. That added an additional obstacle.
In spite of that, it was really sweet to see some of the seniors that were at our previous class. Ione whom I sat with at our last class, arrived late. Yet, as soon as they entered, we smiled at each other and they came and sat right next to me. It was just like seeing an old friend. I shared one of my pieces of poetry with the class and most of them felt as though it was too abstract even though it was pretty contextual. We laughed a lot about it and I found their impressions insightful.
After class, Ione and I caught up and talked. We agreed that we were looking forward to seeing each other again soon. Another member of the group stopped me on my way out and asked about copyrighting. I assured them that I was no expert but that I did know some things as I used to have my own greeting card company. I am saddened that our visits have been postponed this semester. I do hope to be able to visit the center to see some of these friends again.
Coming to Age 