Life Distilled

ars poetica (according to The Essential Poet’s Dictionary):

“Poetry is the subject of the poem,” Wallace Stevens declares in “The Man with the Blue Guitar” (1937), and the ars poetica is a poem that takes the art of poetry as its explicit subject. It proposes an aesthetic. Self-referential, uniquely conscious of itself as both a performance and a treatise, the great ars poetica embodies what it is about.

…The ars poetica, like the defense of poetry, becomes a necessary form when poetry is called into question and freedom is endangered.

Named after Gwendolyn Brooks’ declaration that “Poetry is life distilled,” this is the first half of a workshop series that is grounded in the ars poetica. It offers a supported and deep examination of the art of the poetry as well as the ars poetica as a form.

For this generative workshop, we will meet weekly for a total of five sessions on Sundays from 4-6pm EST.

• Session 1 (Sunday, November 10): The Form in All Things

• Session 2 (Sunday, November 17): The Poem Becomes

• Session 3 (Sunday, December 1): What Happens to I

• Session 4 (Sunday, December 8): Rumination

• Session 5 (Sunday, December 15): Oneness

Each session will be two hours long and will include a mini-lecture, whole group discussion, poetry prompt, solo writing time, and share out. *The mini-lecture, discussion, and poetry prompt will be recorded.

I will also be hosting an optional session (or more! depending on what you all prefer) to provided guided support for working with the drafts that you create during our main sessions.

The syllabus will include links to the readings for each week, guiding questions, and links to additional texts to explore based on each week's focus. We will be reading Audre Lorde, Ocean Vuong, Camonghne Felix, aracelis girmay, Marwa Helal, Mark Nepo, Vievee Francis, Mary Oliver, and more.

At the end of this workshop, you will have:

• five poem drafts or poem-seeds

  • We do plenty of prompted pre-writing together so that you can enter the writing process with as much material to work with as possible.

• a stronger understanding of the function of poetry as well as poetic craft

• for further exploration and added depth, a syllabus of 30+ texts (mostly poems, some essays) that engage with the ars poetica

• a sense of community, and hopefully new poet-friends

• a clearer sense of purpose as a poet.

*This workshop is intended to be accessible and enriching for the poetry-curious and poets at all levels.

**I am offering four scholarships (update: all have been claimed), and they are intended to create access for those who would not have access otherwise. If you would like to request a scholarship, please complete this form. Also, just hit me up for a discount code if that will help you choose poetry in community with greater ease. I am intentionally prioritizing bringing as many people together as possible over money. <3