Thoughts on Teaching a Homelessness Writing Workshop

I recently taught a writing workshop in Astoria on the topic of homelessness. Five students gathered on a lawn with a view of Saddle Mountain. During the workshop, a bald eagle occasionally soared overhead. There's nothing like teaching and have a bald eagle in your presence. I'm lucky to have experienced that as a teacher several times.

What a wonderful engaged group! We made our own independent culture instead of consuming corporate-produced culture. Whenever I teach one of these workshops, I always have my assumptions/ideas challenged or enriched by what I hear others share on the topic. This class was no different.

Homelessness is an almost overwhelming subject to write about. What approach to take? Is it worth the effort? What are the best words to use when writing about homeless people. The cliched jargon of the homeless advocates seems to be part of the problem of reaching the homeless themselves and enlightening a general audience to raise awareness and get projects done to alleviate the crisis. Good words make a difference in storytelling and policy-making and implementation.

What follows are some of my thoughts inspired by the workshop:

An idea of short story about homelessness that culminates on top of Saddle Mountain. Not a tale.

What we engaged in this workshop could serve as a possible model in communities where there are disputes between the homeless, advocates for the homeless, residents of a neighborhood overrun by homelessness and citizens at large who care about the topic.

My surrealism exercise with the students delivered incredible fresh insights into how I perceive the crisis of homelessness on my early morning walks with Elmer the husky.

I like the idea of narrating the story of someone's homelessness through a Nick Carraway-like character from The Great Gatsby who is off to the side, detached but also complicit in how this person became homeless and remains homeless. I know that story is out there and I've never read it in fiction or journalism or memoir. How does a writer go about finding it?

A lot of people who want to help the homeless don't do anything. What is the best way to help? Is teaching a writing workshop on the subject accomplishing anything constructive?

A poem by Robert Frost called “Two Tramps in Mud Time” is somewhat about two homeless men, or drifters or tramps as they called them decades ago. This poem is not widely known and I encountered it by sheer chance in an anthology of American poetry published 70 years ago. It does contain one line that I've committed to memory. “My object in living is to unite my avocation and my vocation.” Amen to that and so difficult to do.

A final thought: This may be the last writing workshop I ever teach. If so, it will have been a great way to conclude my haphazard and eclectic teaching career. It was a good run that led me to meet the most important people of my life.