Jesus In You: A Lent Writing Workshop with Jan Yamaguchi
Jesus In You: A Lent Writing Workshop with Jan Yamaguchi
By Barbara Hiura
By Barbara Hiura
We felt Jesus’ presence at our Lent Writing workshops which are being held over four Sundays in March as each lesson was a search within each in attendance to create a lyric, a poem, a prayer, that was heartfelt, spiritually moving, and a reflection. The second one, led by Jan Yamaguchi, highlighted creating poetry. Yamaguchi is a retired teacher having worked 39 years as an educator, first in elementary school and later as a middle school teacher. While she notes, she learned to love writing poetry at a young age, especially rhyming verse and haiku, it fit well in teaching expression to her 4th graders. And of course, she’s good at it. Her creative experiences past and present “is easy” she remarked. (“Easy for you to say,” I thought).
Teaching these various poetic styles to those attending her creative writing session was a “snap,” and yes appeared to be an easy assignment. But whoa…not so easy or simple. There was a lot of background work done before she came front and center before us. She was, of course, very, very, well-prepared. Jan does what all good teachers do…she had eye appealing poetry work in large print gracing the walls, in full color, mind-you, and of course, board work…or in this case a large easel style tablet. She had her daughter work the poetry lesson with her testing out her material prior to presentation. And she had illustrations from one of her 4th graders just so show poetry can be accomplished at any age.
For our first exercise, she took the words Wesley UMC and with each letter, asked those present to make a word or words from our church name. And yes, we were thinking already of you Jesus, our Christian background, and our church specifically in deriving words from that name. Those attending, Mark Teagle, Rev. John Oda, Jim Mar, Rev. Dr. Roberta Corson, Misao Kusuda, and one outlier, me, reflected on our church and what emerged were impressions of Wesley. This style of poetic writing is called “Acrostic” and once done, a poem. “It doesn’t have to rhyme,” Jan remarked.
W elcoming
E veryone
S erving
L oving
E nergetic
Y oung in heart
U nderstanding
M usical
C ompassion
The Jesus in each of us focused on the highlights of our church as a Christian body in Christ: Wesley UMC…Welcoming, everyone, serving, loving, young at heart, understanding, musical, compassionate. We too are poets.
Jan offered other poetic styles…Haiku being one of her favorites and not difficult at all. I do think her fourth graders are far less inhibited as we adults often are. Haiku, she said, is three lines with 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second and 5 in the last. A tanka style which adds two more lines of 7 syllables each. This is a poetic form from Japan with few words but expressing one’s feelings.
She gave other examples to try…fill in the blank of partial sentences with descriptive adjectives and nouns and when the words are spoken together, a poem maybe describing yourself. Very cool!
Jan showed a person like me, that creating poetry is accessible to everyone and at these workshops, it is an open, friendly, and “welcoming” environment and an uplifting experience. So, people…no fear! You can unburden yourself of all that “stuff” and cross the threshold into a new and creative experience. The lent writing workshops offers everyone a chance to breath and grow in color and express the heart of God in you.
Teaching these various poetic styles to those attending her creative writing session was a “snap,” and yes appeared to be an easy assignment. But whoa…not so easy or simple. There was a lot of background work done before she came front and center before us. She was, of course, very, very, well-prepared. Jan does what all good teachers do…she had eye appealing poetry work in large print gracing the walls, in full color, mind-you, and of course, board work…or in this case a large easel style tablet. She had her daughter work the poetry lesson with her testing out her material prior to presentation. And she had illustrations from one of her 4th graders just so show poetry can be accomplished at any age.
For our first exercise, she took the words Wesley UMC and with each letter, asked those present to make a word or words from our church name. And yes, we were thinking already of you Jesus, our Christian background, and our church specifically in deriving words from that name. Those attending, Mark Teagle, Rev. John Oda, Jim Mar, Rev. Dr. Roberta Corson, Misao Kusuda, and one outlier, me, reflected on our church and what emerged were impressions of Wesley. This style of poetic writing is called “Acrostic” and once done, a poem. “It doesn’t have to rhyme,” Jan remarked.
W elcoming
E veryone
S erving
L oving
E nergetic
Y oung in heart
U nderstanding
M usical
C ompassion
The Jesus in each of us focused on the highlights of our church as a Christian body in Christ: Wesley UMC…Welcoming, everyone, serving, loving, young at heart, understanding, musical, compassionate. We too are poets.
Jan offered other poetic styles…Haiku being one of her favorites and not difficult at all. I do think her fourth graders are far less inhibited as we adults often are. Haiku, she said, is three lines with 5 syllables in the first, 7 in the second and 5 in the last. A tanka style which adds two more lines of 7 syllables each. This is a poetic form from Japan with few words but expressing one’s feelings.
She gave other examples to try…fill in the blank of partial sentences with descriptive adjectives and nouns and when the words are spoken together, a poem maybe describing yourself. Very cool!
Jan showed a person like me, that creating poetry is accessible to everyone and at these workshops, it is an open, friendly, and “welcoming” environment and an uplifting experience. So, people…no fear! You can unburden yourself of all that “stuff” and cross the threshold into a new and creative experience. The lent writing workshops offers everyone a chance to breath and grow in color and express the heart of God in you.
Jan is front and center as she leads this auspicious group of wannabe poets clockwise: Mark Teagle, Rev. John, Jim Mar, Rev. Bobbie, and Misao Kusuda.
Creating the "Acrostic" poem
Lent Writing Workshop samples
From Jim Mar:
HAPPINESS
Happiness is being with family and friends,
relationships cherished to the very end.
Happiness can be like searching for buried treasure,
it can be hard to find and difficult to measure.
the adversity in our lives can present despair and doubt,
presenting forks in a road with no clear way out.
so I pray to you God to bring us up when we are down,
light a path to our happiness where ever it can be found.
HAPPINESS
Happiness is being with family and friends,
relationships cherished to the very end.
Happiness can be like searching for buried treasure,
it can be hard to find and difficult to measure.
the adversity in our lives can present despair and doubt,
presenting forks in a road with no clear way out.
so I pray to you God to bring us up when we are down,
light a path to our happiness where ever it can be found.
From Mark Teagle:
Play on the playground
on the ball field
on the stage
for fun
Play with friends, on a team, or by yourself
with a cast or a one-person show
equals fun, joy, fulfillment
Play takes practice
means doing it over and over until it’s right
takes time and it’s worth it
is recreational
is re-creational
keeps us childlike, in wonder
Play is a mystery. How will it end?
is a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end
is fun
It’s supposed to be fun.
Play on the playground
on the ball field
on the stage
for fun
Play with friends, on a team, or by yourself
with a cast or a one-person show
equals fun, joy, fulfillment
Play takes practice
means doing it over and over until it’s right
takes time and it’s worth it
is recreational
is re-creational
keeps us childlike, in wonder
Play is a mystery. How will it end?
is a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end
is fun
It’s supposed to be fun.
Posted in Newsletter 2025-03-27