Go Mets!

To end the summer with a bang, a few lucky Bridge clients got to go see the Mets play at Citi Field in The Bronx. Patricia Thackray, Director of Bridge Poetry Workshops for the past 25 years, orchestrated the event and The Bridge name was prominently displayed on the marquee. With summer now over, we are celebrating Recovery Month all September long and looking forward to Fall.

Veterans Poetry

The Bridge is proud to announce that its long-established Poetry Program has been the seed for a similar venture. When Patricia Thackray, Director of the Bridge Poetry Workshops lectured at the International Society For The Psychological Treatments of The Schizophrenias And Other Psychoses (ISPS), she inspired one member of the audience, Barbara J. Davidson, to found and run a similar program at James J. Peter's Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center in The Bronx.

Barbara J. Davidson, LCSW, Clinician in Schizophrenic Treatment and Research (STAR) said, "Patricia Thackray's work and that of her clients influenced us to explore poetry in our own VA writing group. Our veterans enjoy reading published poems as well as writing their own." We at the Bridge are happy to play this role in enriching veterans' lives.

Ms. Davidson anticipates that her clients' work will appear in the quarterly national publication Veterans' Voices, the only publication dedicated solely to veterans' writings. This magazine was created by the Hospitalized Veterans Writing Project (HVWP) to further veterans' art and writing. Similar to the focus of our Bridge Poetry Workshop, HVWP's therapeutic writing program acknowledges veterans' experiences and helps to build self-esteem through creative expression.

The Bridge Poetry Program provides clients with the ability to express themselves through an art medium that they are unable to express in any other way. The clients learn about themselves through their poetry, and their self-confidence and feelings of well-being are increased through their creative experiences. The Bridge Poetry Workshop meets twice a week and has been headed by Patricia Thackray for the past 25 years.

The Bridge has long supported veterans. In an innovative partnership, The Bridge, Community Preservation Corporation Resources (CPC-R) and The Briarwood Organization, successfully came together to develop a large parcel of City-owned land in the Melrose section of The Bronx for the Melrose Commons veterans' residence project. This ambitious project will include the development of affordable family housing for the community, senior housing and Bridge housing for 60 homeless veterans who have experienced significant challenges in returning from service.

Poetry Month at The Bridge

To celebrate Poetry Month at The Bridge, the Bridge Poets are doing what they always do- writing, reading and work-shopping their poems! The Bridge Poetry Program provides clients with the ability to express themselves through an art medium that they are unable to express in any other way. The clients learn about themselves through their poetry, and their self-confidence and feelings of well-being are increased through their creative experiences. 


The Bridge Poetry Workshop meets twice a week and has been headed by Patricia Thackray, Director of Bridge Poetry Workshops, for the past 25 years. Recently the workshop has been creating a communal poem based around the simple act of one of it’s members inadvertently leaving their black coat in the middle of the group’s table. This poem was woven, amended, trimmed and altered by many minds and voices – all 19 of the members of poetry workshop. In this work, the poets illustrate how an everyday object can be imbued with meaning. 


The Coat
Without a pattern. There is no coat. There is no poem. - Scott Zwerin, workshop member

Why you forget about your coat—

dark secretive note?

Tossed with defiance on the long white table,

texturing light into darkness.

Shadow with its own shape,

body of land the spirit

left there to lean on.

Coded fragments in disguise:

Lifestyle of today’s distance?

Fabrication of my psychosis?

You ought to be wrapped round someone;

someone grateful for such a coat.

Instead, you lay spread-eagled on the table—

innards exposed—

not even a fur!

Poor coat:

can’t mend or fend for itself:

no eye for beauty,

no nose for fragrance.

Mindless (But hey, I’m not sure

what a mind is for—

are you?)

I imagine you to be made by a man.

like the one my father gave me.

He only wore it on Sundays.

I’d a feeling it was going to feel warm.

And it did.

Warm coat, warm coat:

You’re all I need,

all I need, indeed, indeed!

You could hide the inner me:

security blanket for the heart and lungs,

zippers and pockets to hide secrets in.

Such a Coat:

command it to rise

and it will!

Feathered and full as a majestic bird!

Restored:

no longer that old, faded image of myself.

Blessed Coat:

I’ll wrap you round me and we’ll fly off to Somewheresville.

Shadow, cloth, coat:

Windblown or thrown—

Awaiting the next moment,

Content to be here,

                              like a cloud,

                                                 a hill,

                                                        the warm sun.

Poetry at The Bridge

Kate Tanenbaum

With Winter almost at a close, the focus of poetry at The Bridge has turned to the hopefulness of Spring. Bridge client Kate Tanenbaum has written a poem expressing her feelings about the change in seasons. She has been at The Bridge for 4 years in supported housing and has achieved a great sense of stability and self confidence. Kate has written many poems and wanted to share this one with the Bridge community:




The Box Containing Seasons
By: Kate Tanenbaum

With Spring upon me I feel happy to have weathered a very difficult Winter
Winter inside the box is a safe place in which I like to hide.
Warm non-threatening a place of belonging.
Safety is something I am used to now. But I miss all the
Beauty that is outside the box.

With Spring upon me I am both inside and outside the box
Normalcy feels comfortable to me such as the wind whispering through
The trees.
What is the box containing?
Answer: Winder Spring Summer Fall
Home a place of belonging to myself.

Inner and outer experiences do coincide.

The Bridge Poetry Workshop

Bridge Poets from The Bridge Poetry Workshop meet twice a week to read, critique, and write poems. One of their discussion topics, that is timely for the holiday season, was the exploration of wants and desires as they pertained to their own lives. Their discussions grew into the poem, "I Want! I Want!" The Bridge Poetry Workshop now has a bound copy of "I Want! I Want!" in the museum collection at The Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as the Poets House.

A limited edition of "I Want I Want" has now been beautifully hand-printed. They are available for a donation of $50 or more per copy (while supplies last) as a meaningful holiday gift. To make your donation click here. In the “Dedication” section make sure to write in “I Want I Want”. Billing address must be the same as the shipping address for delivery. To give a different shipping address please contact Ms. Denise Gutierrez at DGutierrez@thebridgeny.org, or T:212-663-3000, ext. 373.

I Want! I Want!

Last year, poets from The Bridge Poetry Workshop explored the topic of wants and desires as they pertained to their own life. Their discussions turned into lines and the lines were written down on paper and the group of lines grew into the poem, "I Want! I Want!"

With the generosity of Judith Young-Mallin, her friend Robert Warner, curator and master printer of Bowne & Co., Stationers and Patricia Thackray, Founder/Director of The Bridge Poetry Workshop "I Want! I Want!" came to life in a publication which is in the museum collection at The Philadelphia Museum of Art as well as the Poets House which was gifted by Judith Young-Mallin in memory of Stanley Kunitz and his wife Elsie Asher.

The Bridge Poetry Workshop meets twice a week to read, critique, and most importantly, to write poems and experience what Bridge poet Gwendolyn Simms call "moments of composed sanity."


Music credit: "Say" - John Mayer

Ending Note for Poetry Video Series

Untitled - Scott Zwiren

Piercing Promise - Theresa O'Sullivan

Fat- Antonia Sierra

Untitled - Sylvester Garwin

Desired Street - Michael Adams

The Social Quest - Ira Brewer

"A good poem always leaves you wanting more" - Charlene D.

*Cover illustration "You're Here"©2009 Ira Brewer

On July 30th, 2009, members of The Bridge Poetry Workshop held a poetry reading for their peers and staff at The Bridge Headquarters. Members of the workshop read from this year's poetry anthology, Bridges (volume IV), and we want to give you a sneak peak! Check out the next couple of posts to listen to the poets reciting their work from the anthology. A formal poetry reading is coming soon this Fall, so keep checking back here for more details.

If you're interested in a copy of this year's poetry anthology, Bridges, contact us