How can a poet find inspiration and joy in a season of snow days, treacherous roads, grey skies over muddy paths, or, worse, icy sidewalks? When we’re forced indoors, we have to go deeper inside, where the ‘invincible summer’ can be found. In this interactive online class, we’ll use Mary Oliver’s work for thematic inspiration, instruction, and as a starting point to launch our own poems. Each week, we’ll consider a brief reading by Mary Oliver (a single poem, essay, or prose poem) placed in conversation with equally brief works from writers including Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Wendell Barry, Jane Hirschfield, Lisa Russ Spaar, Meg Day, Pablo Neruda, Jamaal May, Joy Harjo, and Robert Macfarlane. From these readings, we’ll write new poems from a prompt linked to that week’s topic. Every week will also include optional viewing/listening assignments, all inspired by Mary Oliver’s dictum of “Pay attention, be astonished, and tell about it.” You’ll be encouraged to post your fresh drafts if you like for light criticism and positive peer feedback in the weekly forums. We’ll write poems raising our voices from the tops of the trees, singing of our journey back towards the green times.
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