The Origin of It All

The topic for next week's writing group will be "origins". Our assignment is to bring in an excerpt from something to do with this theme. Here is my take:

Origins~~~

roots, ancestry, parentage, birth, beginnings, emergence, rise, source, cause
the point at which something begins its course or existence
causes operating before the thing itself comes into being
naissance (french for 'birth')
a start
where something unique in itself begins
a beginning
a clean slate
jumping off point
Where does something really begin, be it an idea, a feeling, a person or being, a group, a creative process, or a product?

Next week's theme is very pertinent to my life right now as I consider my own origins and the origin of my own creative process. Where should my own jumping-off point be? How to begin a project or a piece of writing? How did my own beginnings, or childhood, affect me as a writer today? A piece may originate anywhere, be it in the middle, beginning, end or just as merely an essence or seed in the mind.

I thought I would share a glimpse inside my impressions of my own beginning, or "naissance":


My Red Velvet Cloak by Susan Harris-Gamard
~written in the Fall of 2003

Mother, Mother, where have you been?
I miss that red velvet cloak
You held within.
I miss its soft caress
full of smiles and warmth,
and the love of a kindred soul
long lost, but never forgotten.

Mother, Mother
please put it on...
It isn't worn, or full of dust,
not yet, if ever it was.
Ah, but you have given it to me, for keeps
and I have put it away in safety,
so that I too may unfurl
It's red river of comfort
to the next Bright Star, who waits, in the wings.