Here at The Gathering Place we use art as a therapy tool and as a method to create bonds and friendships between members. Throughout the year, members collaborate to write songs, tend to our garden and work side by side on different activities and projects. Some members take photography classes through the Athens Photographic Project and are able to showcase and sell their work. You can find their photography here. Please contact us if you have any questions about any of the artwork you see below.
Creative Corner
Stories/Poems:
Never Been By Myself
Eric Carmen wrote and sung a song titled All by myself and I thought that I would never find love or friends and I always thought I was a loner and destined to be alone forever.
But I was never ever alone. I found God, got a girl and many friends around the world. And I had a nurturing mother who loved and raised me after my dad abandoned us at my birth. I found God and true love but God's love will always be sufficient for me. God's name is Love and I love God and my friends here and abroad.
- David H.
The Space - Sitting Here Home Alone
Thinking about the past
Wondering how I've made it
And how long I'm going to last
Totally obsessed with my parking space
For I can't park some other place
Until I get that handicap sign
Keeping it between the lines
Be careful how y ou wonder; alone
The way through the cemetery
Might be safer than the street
To get home
Let me in the Handicap
Hall of Fame
'Partner in crime'
Remember my name
- A member
Borderline Dream
Country roads take me home
I'm so tired of being alone
What took me this long, then
I'm right back where I've always been
My friends were never around
Their uptown living, was bringing me down
A Loneliness will always stay
I couldn't take another day
No, I didn't see it, coming
Till I heard in the storm
What faith had been, summing
Then I knew in the heart
The deep down wounded part
They want you to be
What they make you
You knew all along
They were going to forsake you
Their uptown living, was bringing me down
They won't drag my dream around
Country roads take me home
I'm so tired of being alone
Yeah, there's some damage, done
You break the heart that has you on the run
I'm going to forgive and forget when
I've done all I can do, then
But can you not see
How I left them, gracefully
Their uptown living was bringing me down
They won't drag my dream around
They want you to be
What they make you
But that won't make your dream come true
- A member
Personal Savior
Should I fall from saving, grace
Would you let me down, easy
Into the arms of faith
How far, until I know...
That was your love
That never let go
Sheaf of lilies, reminding me
Lovely rose of Sharon, tree
Creator, beginning - end
Crowning sacred story - given in degrees
Fairest of ten thousand
Keeper of the keys
Unlocking the truth, the way unveiled
Fighting every battle
To free the sorrow, held
Should I fall from saving grace
Would you let me down easy
Into the arms of faith
How far until I know
That was your love
That never let go
- A member
Untitled
Satan's gate he lives in the desert saying that the son of God will come
And he eats all the locusts and wears loincloth for clothing
But I don't believe him for a second, he is a liar from Satan's gate
And monster, still a true monster from hell, just watch him
Paranoia I've done something heinous that only the police and I
And the new world order know about, I'm a wanted man, dead or alive
I don't know the crime
But the sentence is a lifetime of wondering what I've done and the why
It is my imagination run amok, I've imagined that I'm a wanted man
For crimes against humanity or have I
Amber burning ember of fire beautiful
David H.
Good Ole Days
Worthy memories of an old rockin' chair
Mother rockin' the babies there
Not a clue where this life would lead
But a bible and a lullaby
Just left our souls to bleed
Those precious memoires, killin' me
Embrace the truth healin' me
I'll back down this last road home
I'm so tired of bein' alone
You've only had a part of me
Not, what's in the heart of me
With faded pictures and songs of praise
To soon became the good ole days
We didn't know we were making memories then
When we were searchin' for pop bottles to cash in
So innocent a lifestyle, gone with the wind
Please don't break my heart again
Fishin' wishin' chillen on Friday night
Climbin' trees, skinned up kneees
Sleigh Rides, snowball fights
Skippin' rocks, chicken pox
Walkin' stilts, skies of blue
Did everything they said not to
When did it feel like life just ended
From such adventure, left intended
The need to relive that love and laughter
Some missin' part the heart's still after
If we could turn back time, I swear
The timeless hearts would meet us there
So innocent a lifestyle, gone with the wind
Please don't break my heart, again
- A member
Drunk on the sweet nechtar of love - a poem
I used to think I could find love
In the bottom of a bottle
And I drank ambrosia the
Aphrodisac of the gods and love
But I could not find the one
I was meant to be with forever and ever
I got drunk wine and alcohol
And I found love but it was only temporary
Til she met me and both our Hearts met in a strong bond of love
A love that will last for eternity
Not only are we connected on a higher spiritual level
We have connected on a soul level
And now I am drunk
But not on wine or alcohol
But the sweet sweet nechtar of love
- David H.
