Retreating
I am basking in the poetic glow, so to speak, from my week at the Fine Arts Work Center. What a gift! I am transformed. Spending the week with Marie Howe and the nine other talented people in our class surpassed my expectations. Seriously. I will never look at a poem or a workshopping poems the same way again.
Marie says we have all we need to write a poem at anytime, and while I know that and believe it in my bones, sometimes I need proof. To sit inside a white room with long tables and miscellaneous furniture for a few days, then to hear her say, "You have everything you need to write a poem. OK, pick three things you've observed about this room. Now go write a poem about your mother." And to actually get a few lines you can use. Wow!
We had lots of "wow" moments. By week's end, the group had written surprising poems from untapped, unconscious places. I can't explain it. We were open to whatever needed to come through us at any particular moment.
Of course, when you leave, the trick is to keep it going.
There was a point early on that I stopped blogging so I could focus on the writing. I wanted to keep the energy all to myself.
Today, I am off to Millay Colony for FUEGO! An unstructured writers' retreat with a few friends. The goal is to take everything I've worked on last week and over the last year or so and revise, revise, revise. I'll also generate new work for the Juno project.
More to come--thank goodness.
Marie says we have all we need to write a poem at anytime, and while I know that and believe it in my bones, sometimes I need proof. To sit inside a white room with long tables and miscellaneous furniture for a few days, then to hear her say, "You have everything you need to write a poem. OK, pick three things you've observed about this room. Now go write a poem about your mother." And to actually get a few lines you can use. Wow!
We had lots of "wow" moments. By week's end, the group had written surprising poems from untapped, unconscious places. I can't explain it. We were open to whatever needed to come through us at any particular moment.
Of course, when you leave, the trick is to keep it going.
There was a point early on that I stopped blogging so I could focus on the writing. I wanted to keep the energy all to myself.
Today, I am off to Millay Colony for FUEGO! An unstructured writers' retreat with a few friends. The goal is to take everything I've worked on last week and over the last year or so and revise, revise, revise. I'll also generate new work for the Juno project.
More to come--thank goodness.
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