15 Poets to Open Your Heart and Writing // with Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg

Want to immerse yourself into poetry you may already love or will get to fall in love with while also generating a lot of new poems of your own?

This six-week class leads you on a journey through sparkling poetry from many contemporary and some more ancient poets from across America and around the world, including Rumi, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich, Sharon Olds, Tomas Transtromer, Seamus Heaney, Wislawa Szymborska, William Stafford, Pattiann Rogers, Rainer-Maria Rilke, Tess Gallagher, Audre Lorde, Jane Hirshfield, Linda Hogan, and Gregory Orr. 

Each week features two or three of the poets, including a sampling of their poetry, links to articles and interviews, and a summary about what their work offers us as readers and writers.

Additionally, each week highlights reflections and tips on writing poetry, ways poetry can open our hearts to greater perspective, and lots of writing prompts to help you open doors to new poems. We come together to share our poetry, responses to one another's poetry, and sparks for new ways to consider the poetic power of language.

By the end of the workshop, you'll have a big bunch of new poems and, through the poets we're exploring, lots of inspiring poet-companions you're now familiar with and can visit regularly in libraries and bookstores.

Week by Week

Week One: Ordinary Magic – Tess Gallagher and Seamus Heaney: Looking at the poetry of people who show us the extraordinary in the ordinary – in the U.S. and in Ireland -- we'll open up our eyes to see writing prompts and potential in what's around us wherever we are.

Week Two: Wild at Heart – Pablo Neruda and Tomas Transtromer: Poets who write deeply about the earth and sky can show us new ways to see what's in and beyond our own backyards. This week's poets, from Sweden and Chile open windows into the the mysteries of the earth and the earth, showing us new and ancient ways to write about what endures and what changes in us and in the other-than-human world.

Week Three: Liberation and Illumination – Andre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and Linda Hogan: Poets who write of transformation and freedom, including women and writers of color, illuminate what it is to break silences, speak of recovered or emerging traditions, and amplify the voices that show us more of who are as a people. Poets this week hail from the U.S., the Chickasaw nation, and the Virgin Islands.

Week Four: Wandering Mystics – Rumi, Mary Oliver, and Rainer-Maria Rilke: This week's poetry takes to the less-traveled path through exploring the spirit-journeying poems of writers from Germany, Persia/Afghanistan, and the U.S. We'll accompany these poets through mystical treks accompanied by angels (Rilke), the seen and unseen (Rumi), and dogs and other plants and animals (Mary Oliver) as we wander into our own new poetry.

Week Five: Healing Fountains – Gregory Orr, Wislawa Szymborska, and Sharon Olds: Through exploring the poetry of personal and communal healing, we can find and write some of our own healing fountains, surfacing what's ripe for revising in our lives and life stories to craft more authentic and generous narratives to write and live. This week features poets from Poland and the U.S.

Week Six: Maps to Where We Live – Jane Hirshfield and William Stafford: Poetry can also help us revision where and how we live, lighting from within the details and big picture views of our lives. By considering the work of these poets who write so vividly of the present, and what it means to land in the here and now of each moment, we can better embrace the patterns our lives and poetry give us.

Who Should Take This Class

This is a generative class for all people who are drawn to poetry, whether you're just getting started or have a long-time practice. All the writing prompts and interactive activities are designed to meet you where you are and gather us into a vibrant poetry community for the duration of our time together.

Format

This is an online class with new lessons opening each week full of opportunities for you to learn and explore, read and write, and respond to each other's discoveries and poetry in supportive ways. This class also builds community among us as we reach across the miles to hold one another's words and reflect deeply on what we discover individually and together. 

Additionally, we have two optional Zoom sessions:

• Thurs., March 7th, 7-8 p.m. CT/ 8-9 p.m. ET/ 6-7 p.m. MT/ 5-6 p.m. PT to get to know each other, and
• Thurs., April 18th at CT/ 8-9 p.m. ET/ 6-7 p.m. MT/ 5-6 p.m. PT to celebrate our work and share our new writing.

The Zoom sessions will be recorded for anyone who isn't able to attend.

Expect to spend a minimum of 3-6 hours per week on writing. Participants are also asked to respond to at least three other participants' work each week, deepening our dialogue altogether. 

About the Teacher

Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, Ph.D., the 2009-13 Kansas Poet Laureate, is the founder of Transformative Language Arts and the author of two dozen books. Her publications include How Time Moves: New & Selected Poems; Miriam's Well, a novel; Needle in the Bone, a non-fiction book on the Holocaust; The Sky Begins At Your Feet, a bioregional memoir.

A writing and right livelihood coach, working with people to bring what wants to be written and lived into being, Mirriam-Goldberg offers community writing workshops widely, and with Kelley Hunt, Brave Voice retreats. She also co-leads the Your Right Livelihood class and retreat with Kathryn Lorenzen, and the Art of Facilitation training with Joy Roulier Sawyer, with whom she also offers the annual Writing from the Soul retreat.

Born hard-wired to make something (in art, music, and especially writing), Caryn’s long-time callings include writing as a spiritual and ecological path, yoga, drawing, cultivating a loving marriage, family, and community, and helping herself and others make and take leaps into the miraculous work of their lives. www.CarynMirriamGoldberg.com

Photo of Caryn by Stephen Locke