Eldasara in front of her home
“If I’m feeling upset,” says Eldasara Morgan, “I write something positive to lift the spirits, then I seal it and mail it to myself. When it comes back to me in a few days, I have a good laugh. It makes me think about what I was experiencing when I wrote the entry, and how silly those feelings are now that the moment has passed.”
Eldasara, who moved from a nursing home to a BCArc house in December 2019, finds solace in writing poems, stories, and journal entries.
“I do best when someone gives me an assignment, or a purpose for my writing,” she said. This month she created cards for the Soldier’s Home in Holyoke, Mass. “I wrote something that I thought would inspire them,” she said. The health care facility for veteran’s hung dozens of the cards around the facility.
She started writing at age 6, when her grandmother read to her Emily Dickinson poems. “She thought that poems would help me understand the struggles we all share, and that we’re not alone. She was right.” Eldasara has been reading and writing every since.
Amanda Lemon, who manages the group home in Southwick for people with brain injuries, said that Eldasara will sometime read her work to the staff. “Writing is a great coping tool for anyone, and we enjoy Eldasara reading to the staff and the other individuals in the house. There’s always something in there to learn for each of us.”
Selected Poems by Eldasara Morgan
