Briefly describe the group with whom you led a discussion.

This was a single discussion at a conference of youth service volunteers in New England. There were four simultaneous discussions, each of which had about 20 participants.

Briefly describe the program you led.

We used Nowlan's poem to explore the theme of compassion and the importance of touch in service. I began by asking volunteers to think of situations in which they felt awkward or uncomfortable in their service. Then we read the poem out loud.

How did it go?

I opened discussion by asking how the narrator changed over the course of the poem and whether he was right that all we want is merely to be held. The discussion was interesting because there were some volunteers who work with schools and agree that touch is critically important in caring for people, but we also had mothers of students who wanted volunteers to consider the possible implications of physical touch. We talked about the conflict between accepted etiquette and compassion. One participant asked about whether, in the last line of the poem, Nowlan was suggesting that touch is the fire that keeps us going through our own ice age—namely the reluctance to engage in physical contact in our culture.

What, if anything, would you do differently?

I would use the text again, but perhaps later in a discussion series. I think it would be interesting to explore our own reluctance to connect through touch.

Anything else?

Other facilitators had more difficulty drawing people out for various reasons. It is a tough poem to begin with because it deals (literally and figuratively) with very touchy issues.

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