 Short stories of war, hope, and love were told as part of Central Lake College's verse-like water series. Clayton Castle has more. The verse-like water series at Central Lake College welcomed Osama Alomar to Brainerd, a writer of short stories who lived in Syria right before the Civil War. I cannot describe my feeling. I'm so upset and I'm so sad. At the beginning, I was optimistic because I thought we can get rid of this brutal regime in several months, but now I'm pessimistic. Pessimism can turn to new hope, as it's that hope through his writing that attracted Jeff Johnson to Osama Alomar's work. Just watching a human heart that's had that much suffering happened to it, and yet at some level he's still hopeful. Alomar says that finding inspiration isn't hard, as it is all around us. Actually, there's inspiration everywhere. Since I was young, since I was a teenager, I found inspiration in not only among humans, also in nature, objects. Johnson says Alomar's personal story and the story through his writing speaks to the mission of the verse-like water series. Part of the tradition of the series is paying attention to the voice of immigrants, the voice of people in exile. Reporting from Central Lakes College in Brainerd, Clayton Castle, Lakeland News. The next verse-like water poetry reading is scheduled for early May. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.