Please note that this is an online workshop conducted via Zoom. Participants will be provided information on how to join the online sessions.
Reconnecting with the world about us through poetry
Open to poets of all levels and backgrounds, this workshop will be dedicated to reinvigorating our connection to nature through poetry and to giving our poems the close attention and time needed to improve our craft. In our current world of pandemic-induced isolation and disconnection, it is important to reconnect with the natural world around us. Keats said, “The poetry of the Earth is never dead.” Nature is and has always been a core inspiration for many poets; from Emily Dickinson’s quiet considerations of nature, to the gritty, city-core aesthetics of Ginsberg’s “Sunflower Sutra,” to Brenda Hillman’s modern concerns with climate change, nature has always been a source of wisdom, terror, and creativity. In this poetry workshop, we will utilize an experience-based approach aimed at getting the participants back into nature and designed to help their writing flourish. This is a generative workshop where participants will be introduced to the core concepts of ecopoetics through poetry and craft talks. There is nature to be found even in the concrete jungle of downtown Houston. Natural encounters can exist wherever the participants find themselves, and this class will be about discovering nature where we are, reconnecting with the environment and ourselves, and improving our poetry.