Writings
Introduction:
I am currently in the process of collecting and archiving my writings. Some of the work is currently in the Schlesinger Library on Women’s History, Radcliffe College. I am now in the process of organizing more material to send them. My wish is that there be a way for my work to be remembered and that people have access to it both now and after my passing.
My desire is that an archival location for my writing will also include access to my DVD’s and art work. This body of work includes photographic collaborations done with photographer Steven R. Johnson to document my life,( ie…see Rubenesque Landscape on this website). I also have additional photographs of my life and activities. Sometime in the mid-1980’s I decided to initiate this self-documentation/with photographers to preserve a record of my journey and to inspire others. This photographic project is ongoing.
Here is a partial list of some of my creative writing, from the last 36 years:
- A collection of short stories and poems for children
- a collection of prayer poems and nature poems, including poems for Meher Baba
- haiku (in progress)
- a collection of short stories (many of these short stories are about people outside the social mainstream)
- experimental theatre, essays and poetry on body image, (including dance notes on being a full-figured women)
- notes on being an art model (1978-1985)
- Esalen Journey (1986-1987)
- journal writings and notes on creativity and recovery from emotional trauma.
This brief annotation is just the beginning of my archival journey and descriptions of my work. My desire is to do more annotating and organizing. Thank you for reading this.
Please contact me if you would like to know more about this material and if you have any comments. Some of it has been published, some as yet unpublished. Blessings. sharon@olympus.net
1973: ”Sculpture Lessons”
a play by Sharon Lia Robinson.
Written in Los Angeles and Santa Monica, California. An experimental one-act play.
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.
Here is an excerpt from the play:
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.
This one-act play is about 25 pages, including production notes and ideas for stage direction.
For a donation of $18, I will mail you a copy of this play, typewritten on 8 1/2′ by 11″ paper.
Your support for this project helps to cover some of the costs for printing , postage, writing and editing of this project.
Thank you.
Esalen Journey (A Journal of Emerging Spiritual Awareness)
Part 1, October 28, 1986-December 6, 1986 (about 56 pages)
Esalen Massage Documentation (about 22 pages)
Part 11, December 10, 1986-March 5, 1987 (about 68 pages)
In October, 1986 I moved from Somerville, Massachusetts to live and to study at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. This journal is a record of those four months in Big Sur. This two-part journal records my impressions of some of the people I met at Big Sur, and the insights and knowledge I received in my experience at Esalen. The journal also includes some of my poetry and dreams during those four months, my interactions with others, and my insights into body/mind and spirit.
I studied to be a massage therapist, taking a month long course. Then I stayed on as a work-scholar. I was assigned to housekeeping. My work was cleaning the hot tubs and the guest rooms, and working in the laundry. In exchange for this work and some financial payment to Esalen, I was in a program to take more seminars.
However, I spent most of my free time completing my thirty practice massages, to get my California State Massage Practitioner’s Certification.
Part 11, December 10, 1986: (excerpt)
I am working here in the laundry
I bless the objects I work with
The sheets the furniture the desk
The baths which I clean
releasing sobs
-breath into throat -
tension lifts from neck as sobs come to life – the child, alone – can only find love from objects -
she doesn’t want to be pushed, or rushed – she handles the objects with care
blessing the sheets
Thanking the stones
as she scrubs the baths
or the concrete floor of the shower
The sobs for the objects around her
when she was a child, lonely
in the children’s home
The sobs when
she spoke to the
objects around her
and they cared more for
her than the people she knew-
The housemothers, swimteachers
psychiatrist, etc…
The dirty candy wrappers
the books
the linen – I spoke with them as a child magician -
They gave me love -
I return the love to them now.
(End of entry for December 10,1986 of Esalen Journal).
(While at Esalen, I also gave a poetry/dance performance of my creative work, accompanied by conga drums.
I met Bill Light, who described himself as a new age Christian. He was visiting Esalen and he drove me to the Henry Miller Museum, at Emil White’s place. Here is another excerpt from Part 11 of the journal):
February 19, 1987:
Bill Light drove me to Emil White, an accomplished painter and old time friend of Henry Miller. Mr. White has the Henry Miller Memorabilia Museum in his home in Big Sur. His hands are shaking because he has Parkinson’s disease, as he reads my story, “The Homeopath” and then “The Casablanca.”
When we meet, he kisses my hand. I can see the sensual twinkle in his eyes. The silence in the room as he reads my words. The silence of nature and of God.
Emil White likes my work. He suggests I contact Grove Press and Ferlinghetti.
February 29, 1987:
I leave Esalen with the memory of our Work Scholar goodbye party – and of my last few days in the laundry.
“I trust that God is in me
I trust that my labor is holy
Out of this trust I live.” *
*An anonymous quote I saw on the wall in one of Esalen’s offices.
February 29,1987:
leaving Esalen
the fire of change
new earth
air of passage
I remember
the surging waterfall
knowing
the sadness, the strength
in each new connection.
(End of February, 1987 excerpts, Part 11, Esalen Journal)
Perhaps in the future this journal will be edited for publication. Please let me know if you would like to see a hard copy of all or some of the journal sections. I would ask for a donation to cover cost of copying and postage.