First group

For twelve years the infrastructure at Windgrove has been slowly building. A week ago today, an inaugural group of participants arrived from America’s Rhode Island School of Design to move the dream of Windgrove as a refuge for ecology and art into that of established reality.

What transpired within the artistic souls of each of us during this intense, often emotional five day residency? Is it even possible to adequately describe what happened?

The poem gives a possible clue:

Self-Portrait

It doesn’t interest me if there is one God
or many gods.
I want to know if you belong or feel
abandoned.
If you know despair or can see it in others.
I want to know
if you are prepared to live in the world
with its harsh need
to change you. If you can look back
with firm eyes
saying this is where I stand. I want to know
if you know
how to melt into that fierce heat of living
falling toward
the center of your longing. I want to know
if you are willing
to live, day by day with the consequence of love
and the bitter
unwanted passion of your sure defeat.

I have been told, in that fierce embrace, even
the gods speak of God.

David Whyte