The Feeling of This Place

When I was 16, I attended Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts (GSA), a 3-week summer program for talented artists in all discipines. It was a transformative, magical summer. It was the first summer I got to really live as a writer.

GSA still exists now. It has grown and transformed and provided a haven for over 8,000 young artists (and counting) since it began. My Beloved is the Artist-in-Residence and soul keeper of GSA, so every session I go back to experience the closing sessions. Today’s draft is an attempt to capture what GSA feels like, even 30+ years later.

(P.S. GSA students go through a very selective audition process and those selected attend free of charge, getting valuable time with artists and teachers in their field. If you’d like to support cultivating future generations of artists, you can do so here.)

It is the slap of late summer sun on your bare back,

The feeling of a hawk’s wing-wind lifting the hem of your skirt,

The ghost of a moon in the light of the day,

The taste of peaches at the apex of their sweetness,

A long hug and someone else’s tears on your face.

It is “I carry your heart” whispered into a microphone,

“We love you, Milo!” from the back of the stage to the top of the balconies,

Tears in the front row from a newly awake human.

It is the weight of air in your open hands.

It is the embrace of gravity and earth in every footstep.