For most of this month, I’ve been rising early to participate in a poem-of-the-day workshop with poets from Argentina, Canada and around the United States. Lisa Richter, a beautiful and brilliant poet based in Toronto created the workshop as a way to generate work. Together, we read and/or listen to the featured poem-of-the-day from the Academy of American Poets.
Then we dive into discussion about the poem’s shape, devices, intent, delivery, and a host of any number of things that catch our individual attention. After our discussion, we mute our virtual videos and microphones and write for 20 minutes.
In two weeks, I’ve generated more work than in the past two years. Granted, some things have been going on--a new job, a move to California, a pandemic. Still, it's important to acknowledge how a community created at a distance has become a community based in the heart--meaningful in ways I couldn’t have predicted.
Writing is an isolated art--that’s the standard thinking. And, certainly, when the work is happening, it must arise from the self. What a joy, though, to be plugged into a community of poets and writers who love and practice poetry and writing.
The energy created from a collaborative space like this is different than that of an academic workshop. Maybe it’s just blocking 20 minutes for uninterrupted pen-to-paper or fingers-to-keys that I’ve been missing, but I think it’s more than that. We find our way together through the words of others and then our own.
I’ve missed this process. To my delight, I feel better both physically and mentally than I have in quite some time. My hero understood what I am now more deeply comprehending:
What you don’t do can be a destructive force. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
So, what is the thing that creates a negative space when you don’t do it? I’d love to hear from you!
Then we dive into discussion about the poem’s shape, devices, intent, delivery, and a host of any number of things that catch our individual attention. After our discussion, we mute our virtual videos and microphones and write for 20 minutes.
In two weeks, I’ve generated more work than in the past two years. Granted, some things have been going on--a new job, a move to California, a pandemic. Still, it's important to acknowledge how a community created at a distance has become a community based in the heart--meaningful in ways I couldn’t have predicted.
Writing is an isolated art--that’s the standard thinking. And, certainly, when the work is happening, it must arise from the self. What a joy, though, to be plugged into a community of poets and writers who love and practice poetry and writing.
The energy created from a collaborative space like this is different than that of an academic workshop. Maybe it’s just blocking 20 minutes for uninterrupted pen-to-paper or fingers-to-keys that I’ve been missing, but I think it’s more than that. We find our way together through the words of others and then our own.
I’ve missed this process. To my delight, I feel better both physically and mentally than I have in quite some time. My hero understood what I am now more deeply comprehending:
What you don’t do can be a destructive force. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
So, what is the thing that creates a negative space when you don’t do it? I’d love to hear from you!
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