Contributions and Gifts

Your encouragement and affirmation of my work through financial gifts, prayer and spiritual support, counseling, affirmations, internship offerings and technical skills are most welcome. I appreciate and invite your ideas for sharing and publicizing my creative projects and the publishing of my archival work.
Your thoughts and inquiries are welcome. 
Please consider a contribution in support of my life as an artist and independent scholar. Financial contributions are not tax deductible.
You may send a contribution via Zelle online banking method.
Also, checks may be sent to me,
Sharon L. Robinson
P.O. Box 895
Port Townsend,
Washington 98368 
USA

A collection of my creative work is in my archive in the Schlesinger Library on Women’s History, Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

I am very grateful for this archive, and that my writings have a home.

In this way, my work is remembered and people have access to it both now and after my passing.

My collection of poetry, stories, and visual art  includes photographic collaborations with photographer Steven R. Johnson (see Rubenesque Landscape on this website). This  collaboration, along with my other projects, documents my life to preserve a record of my journey and to inspire others.

My Creative Writings Include:

• a collection of  short stories and poems for children
• free verse poetry
• a collection of short stories (many of these short stories are about unique and unusual people living outside social convention )
• experimental theatre, stories, essays and poetry   (including pioneering poetry, stories and dance notes for the anthology, Shadow on a Tightrope, Writings by Women on Fat Oppression)
• notes on being an art model (1978-1985)
• Esalen Journey (1986-1987)
• journal writings
• notes on creativity, healing and community

I continue the completion of my  work as an artist and an independent scholar. Some examples of my creative work are available on this website, and published elsewhere as well. Hard copy papers and digital film links are in my Radcliffe Archive and accessible there and online. Please contact me with your ideas and contributions. Many thanks and blessings.

(The essay, “My Archival Journey” was first written in April, 2010 and updated on December 7, 2020).

An amazing year in many ways. Opening my heart and facing the truth of my innermost childhood meanderings, spending two years on the collection, still in progress, The Children’s Home, a book of memories and imagination, an emerging saga of my stories and poetry.

From this writing and inner work, I now have a better comprehension of myself, including an awareness, self-acceptance and an understanding of the life long effects of emotional trauma, the life choices one makes in response to the need for survival and love, and the impact of social dislocation on children.

I am grateful for my spiritual connection to Meher Baba, who is often called the Awakener, and for the children’s home experience, as I see now that the seeds of my faith and compassion were sewn in those early years at Vista Del Mar Jewish Children’s Home. With the guidance of wonderful and inspiring sources for spiritual direction, my social worker, holistic health professionals and my own research as an independent scholar, along with the angels, this exploratory and purposeful work continues.

As I move forward, I am developing another book in progress, An Unconventional Heroine, stories and poems inspired by my life and my friendships as an outsider and a non-mainstream woman. Hopeful precursor to a new foundation. Collecting, revising, weaving the strands of being and identity.

A third collection for spiritual renewal embraces my devotional poems, in reverence for nature and Creator. I am sharing these poems in liturgical and secular settings. My first book, Wayward Star Devotional Poems, which I self-published in 2017, is still available.

I pray and affirm that I may have the sustenance to continue my creative life and calling. I am reminded of the Hebrew phrase, tikkun olam, the saying for healing and renewal of oneself and the planet.

Abstract art, intuitive insights with friends, times of prayer and reflection at my local Catholic church which is open daily — a blessing just down the road, such an important resource I can walk to as a non-driver — as well as visits to the local Episcopal church, receiving help with rides to the market and post office, love and reverence for nature, a place to live, healthy food, family and friends, beautiful books and clothes, I know and see all this through Meher Baba, the devotional source of holiness, mystery and truth.

I do believe that a transformative institute, a foundation, and my ongoing legacy to preserve and to more widely share the quality and unique nature of my work is a plan for now and the future. Thanks for being part of the treasure.

Sharon Lia Robinson, Artist Poet Independent Scholar www.sharonrobinson.org

Sharon’s Altar. Photo by Jane McKann.

There may be a clue in facing a challenge, a clue that leads one on their path in life to find their purpose.  The challenges that I experienced in my early years have played a significant role in my life search, identity and individuation.

My life has led me to a path of spiritual faith and self-acceptance.   I have faith that my vision for an innovative center, foundation, or institute for my life and my legacy will inspire others to work with me in support of my projects, and will educate many in various ways and realms. 

In my early twenties, as a student of sociology and psychology, I became aware of the work of Thomas Szasz, R. D. Laing, Rollo May, Carl Jung and Frantz Fanon. Through their writings, I was thus influenced to consider and to appreciate my creative gifts and uniqueness. There were communities at the time, led by R. D. Laing, Rollo May, and the followers of Carl Jung. 

These innovative centers upheld alternative insights, understanding and compassion for a gentle unfoldment of the creative process, within the context of the meaning of a psychic break.  Knowing that these places were being developed and researching their practices was an essential way for me to begin to know and to honor myself. These centers have given me courage throughout my life as I have developed as a poet, a visual  artist, an independent scholar and in my research of holistic health practices. 

Claydance sculpture by Sharon Lia Robinson

I have written a collection of four experimental plays.  These theatre collages reflect the search for love, self-acceptance and wholeness.  I wrote the first play, Sculpture Lessons, while I was living in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California, 1973-1974. 

This experimental play is 31 pages, including  production notes and ideas for stage direction and music improvisation.

Let me know if you would like to see the entire play in hard copy or online. 

Here is an excerpt.

A young woman, in conflict with mainstream versions of acceptable social life, asserts her own way of living.  Includes poetry, dialogue, and a Greek chorus.  The play can also include music, video, song-poems, and dance.
A celebration of  finding one’s authentic self and an example of my early literary voice.

Chorus: My spirit is cleansed, my body renewed, by this union with others in which I am me.  No longer threatened by gurus or thieves, I can speak out because now I can listen.

Ina: Could it be that despite the complexities, the struggles, the death knolls, we grow, we struggle, we survive?  We survive to continue to suffer and to laugh and to cry and to love.  To be hated for what we are. To be loved for what we are mistaken for.  And forever the fortune of time:  the power to heal all wounds.  The blessed gate of time through which we strive for eternal salvation.

(These theatre notes for Sculpture Lessons were originally written in May 26, 2014).

 
(A poetry preview and some notes about my rock opera, “Dream Child,” featuring in the cast, Eva Bogislav, an attractive Renoiresque poet and Aaron Hernandez, a homeless street musician.
Perhaps I will locate a musician for writing the music for the song-poems).

“Wild Child”
song poem by Sharon Lia Robinson

wild child
come in from the cold
wild child
planting flowers
only you can see
wild child
clinging to life’s tree
wild child
crying out to me
crying out to be
crying out to see
the light of love
you are meant to be.
wild child, when will you find your true song?

(The experimental play I have written, Dream Child,
opens with Dream Child, a homeless musician,
playing acoustic guitar and singing the following song).

“Living on the Street”
song poem by Sharon Lia Robinson

living on the street
sleeping on the beach
waking up to pray
in a stranger’s garden

what about the guy
on the other side of that fence
he won’t let me in
he only asks
too many questions

he doesn’t want my answers
he doesn’t like my message
I am I am I am
living on the street

for the sake of love
living in the name of love
living for the way
the way of love

he doesn’t want my message
he won’t trust the work
he can hear me calling
from the other side of whim

yes I’m living for the sake of love
on the other side of whim
divine high
divine time
divine whim

all of life
is a gift
loving our Creator
love God love.

(Many of my writings portray unconventional, outsider women who search for love and fulfillment. All of these plays and stories are now dedicated to Meher Baba, whose love and teachings help me to accept my “otherness,” giving me insights and a sense of self-acceptance.

I think that in many ways, I was seeking to portray those of us who desire love as a shelter against the coldness, the social isolation of our being different, to heal the sense of alienation.

My experimental play, Dream Child is a series of song poems and dialogue, dance and music with film possibilities. A director, a producer, or anyone who may be interested in the potential of this play – please let me know and I can send you a copy.

The woman in the play, alone, is searching for a companion, perhaps as mask for an unknown, silent spiritual yearning, an inner depth, unfathomable.

I received one very special comment during the discussion after a reading of Dream Child in summer, 2011. An actor who liked the play said I might be interested in the writing of Charles Mee. This led me to the website of Charles Mee, who likes to call his plays collages.

On his website, Chuck Mee writes, “ I like plays that are not too neat, too finished, too presentable. My plays are broken, jagged, filled with sharp edges, filled with things that take sudden turns, careen into each other, smash up, veer off in sickening turns. That feels good to me. It feels like my life. It feels like the world.
And then I like to put this—with some sense of struggle remaining—into a classical form, a Greek form, or a beautiful dance theatre piece, or some other effort at civilization.” 

Themes and Commentary

     I have written a collection of stories, journals and memoir; with themes that relate to the outsider and the search for social acceptance. Being in some ways outside the margins, my work as a poet and fiction writer may focus on people outside mainstream American culture.

     I believe that the commentaries I am sharing relate to emergence and transformation in my life and give the added spiritual dimension, addressing life path issues, learning from experience, karma and a historical record of one woman’s life and work.

     In the 1970’s, I was a young, full-figured Jewish woman, a poet finding my way in America. I was earnestly seeking connection, meaning and authenticity for my life, and a sense of belonging.  For various reasons, I did not find social acceptance (ie…dates, attractive, accessible clothing) or social approval in the realm of the mainstream milieu. 

     My friends and companions were often other outsiders.  I was searching within and meeting other outsiders; to find my sense of self.  This search was my way to creatively explore and to find a sense of wholeness.

     In 1974, I became active in the fat women’s liberation movement for size acceptance.  I soon began writing short stories and poems to bring to light the experience of living as a full-figured woman in America. During that time, I also began to explore the psychology of Dr. Carl Jung.

     In 1986, my life began to change slowly, yet dramatically, when I became a spiritual devotee of Meher Baba. Since then, my work has focused more completely on the inner journey toward wholeness, from a more conscious spiritual perspective.

     Now, I am organizing and sharing my reflections and commentary on my collection of stories and experimental plays. 

     My intention is to reclaim what is of value and wisdom, so that I and others may continue to learn from that earlier time frame in my life.  (These notes were originally published on February 10, 2011 and later edited).

Read more about these writings:  Excerpts from a Play and Three Short Stories

whatever happened to that
lonely outsider fat girl

she became a
disciple of love