This winter solstice poem reminds us how to stay in wonder. Mary Oliver's "Snowy Night" helps us bring in the solstice and appreciate both the dark and the light.
How does your own engagement with poetry interact with the greater public, social, and political world? * Write a poem that imagines your own death and that celebrates your life. “Bullet Points” is just one of numerous famous poems in which poets imagine their own death—and/or celebrate escaping death.
I want to share “Swan” by Mary Oliver for the new year or for any period of change and transformation. This powerful poem by Mary Oliver is about being present and about change. That might sound like a paradox: how can we both be present and invite change? For a long time, I struggled with that question until I realized it’s not a paradox at all: change is always happening from the ...
Rumi ‘s “The Breeze at Dawn” is full of movement; from the breeze to the people at the threshold, nothing is static in the poem. Rumi composed many of his poems in a state of movement, whirling as a whirling dervish. It’s always powerful to incorporate movement into your writing process.
The course is designed to fit any schedule and is for poets and non-poets of any level. Writing Prompts: The Purpose of Poetry **Do you remember an encounter you had with a poem/ piece of literature that was meaningful for you? Take one encounter and write about it. **What role does poetry/ writing play in your life? What purpose does it have ...
"The Geese," Jorie Graham's brilliant early poem, explores the relationship between order and disorder, meaning and the absence of meaning, and like so many of her poems is a poem about poetry itself:
