There is nothing more powerful than the four word poem. No greater form of expression. This is what the wise old woman at the front of the room tells us after greeting the writers of all ages who have come to learn. As she rings the bell, its resounding chime is signaling us to meditate — to write. Now we all write down our four words. Or even one word.

As we take on the posture of a writer, completely relaxed and self-aware, we start. We compose lyrical fragments or state simple truths. And strangely enough, though I have not prepared myself for a poem or an essay, the words come. Any barriers in my mind dissolve and I just write as though an invisible force guides my hand. No more of the two dreaded words we are forbidden to say (writer’s block: It doesn’t count because I didn’t say it out loud).

On Saturday April 14, I, along with a small group of Erica Dei Rossi’s junior and senior English students, had the opportunity to attend a writer’s workshop at Delta College. This workshop featured the award-winning Maxine Hong Kingston, a Stockton native who wrote “The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts,” a book widely read across college campuses. This workshop was more than just something to do on a Saturday. It awakened a desire that had lain dormant for a long time.

At an early age, all I wanted to do was write a book; not to be published, just something for me. Yet as I got older, I felt incredible despair. There was an aching feeling that no matter what I did, a complete story would not come to me. I could never produce a great masterpiece because I had no significant experiences to write about and worse still, I was a nobody from Stockton. My work could never be good enough for my standards let alone someone else’s and I began to hate whatever I wrote. 

Even though teachers would tell me throughout my schooling that I was a good writer, I did not believe it and I did not believe I could ever become a good writer. 

But listening to someone who had a successful career as a writer and had come from the same place that I thought was holding me back, just opened my eyes and made me realize my dream of writing something was not impossible.

I still don’t feel the need to publish a book. But I feel the need to let my creativity run freely through my no longer blockaded mind. I know that the only thing holding me back is my attitude.