Poetics As Cosmology Overland to Levertov

A five week online (Zoom) workshop for people who have some spontaneous poetry composition experience & want to go deep. Join Cascadia Poetics Lab and Poetry Postcard Fest Co-Founder Paul E Nelson in a lively course designed to help you tap into deeper levels of knowing that can begin inform your non-writing life & reduce reliance on editing. Some theory to understand the poetics of 20th/21st c approaches to spontaneous composition (see below) some writing exercises, discussion and between class homework. The work of Denise Levertov’s Overland to the Islands will be discussed each week as well as work from poets like, Michael McClure, Wanda Coleman, Brenda Hillman, Nate Mackey, Robert Duncan, Robin Blaser and others. along with concepts such as seriality, & investigative poetics & how to write more by getting the most out of first drafts. There will be reading, writing and other assigned materials/exercises available a week before the course begins and each week after.

Thursdays, 4-6pm Pacific Time
Oct 19 & 26 and Nov 2, 9, & 16. $250.
Some scholarships available.

COURSE MATERIALS WEEK ONE, Thursday, October 19, 2023, 4-6pm PDT

This year we initiate a couple of new activities.

1) Write a reflection on the week’s materials. What you liked, what you didn’t. Add questions you might have or any thoughts related to what you read, listened to and watched. Lines by Levertov that stood out for you, or those moments in the poem you thought were weak, or did not understand. Shoot for 500 words. This would be an excellent check-in, along with your poem. Each participant will do a check-in on the week’s materials.

2) Do an hour of Spiritual Ecology Field Work. I am studying with Jennifer Wilhoit and this part of this course is modeled after her training. This could be as simple as meditating in your backyard, or going into a natural place and creating a cairn, or ground altar, or wreath using found materials, or even reading poetry to the crows. Do ask for permission for everything you use in these creations and understand they are to be temporary. Keep a pocket notebook, take notes on what happens and your associations and emotions, and see if images from your field work come up in your poems. It’s best not to take phone calls, answer emails or look at social media while you are doing the field work, but the phone comes in handy to document anything you create or, if greeted by more-than-humans, you can try to get a recording.

Also, make yourself familiar with this page of essays which you may find very helpful in your quest to understand spontaneous composition.

READ: https://orionmagazine.org/article/the-air-aware/

LISTEN: Chicago: August/September 2023

READ: Overland to the Islands by Denise Levertov (page 1-10 of document)

LISTEN (or READ): The Kidnapped Child Who Became a Poet

READ: S’Klallum Public Garden (as pdf)

READ: First Draft: Poet Laureate Oath of Office, Diane di Prima

WRITE: First Draft Poet Laureate (of your domain)

COURSE MATERIALS WEEK TWO, Thursday, October 26, 2023, 4-6pm PDT

READ: Overland to the Islands by Denise Levertov (page 11-20 of document). Please add a key phrase found in these pages (or a question about the work) to your written check-in. Please write your three minute reflection on your experience with the course materials.)

LISTEN: Chicago: August/September 2023 (Take the music on a walk if you can. This will get you out of the prison of your logical mind.)

REFLECT: Do an hour of Spiritual Ecology Field Work.

WATCH:

WATCH: https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/ZzaUGhhnlQ8

READ: Reinhabitation: Body, Place Bioregion

WRITE: Please write a reflection on this week’s course materials suitable for a check-in

WRITE: Down Brain Collage

WEEK THREE, November 2, 2023, 4-6pm PDT

READ: Overland to the Islands by Denise Levertov (page 21-30 of document). Please add a key phrase found in these pages (or a question about the work) to your written check-in. Please write your three minute reflection on your experience with the course materials.)

READ: The Letters of Robert Duncan & Denise Levertov (Extra credit article war poems of E.P.)

LISTEN: https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/2023/07/interview-with-gabrielle-gutierrez-y-muhs/

READ: Museums Play it Safe (Extra credit for this related piece.)

READ: Recipes Inspired by Literary Meals

READ: R.I.P. Carla Bley

LISTEN: R.I.P. Carla:

REFLECT: Do an hour of Spiritual Ecology Field Work.

WRITE: Please write a reflection on this week’s course materials suitable for a check-in

WRITE: Recipe Poem

WEEK FOUR, November 9, 2023, 4-6pm PST

READ: Overland to the Islands by Denise Levertov (page 31-42 of document). Please add a key phrase found in these pages (or a question about the work) to your written check-in. Please write your three minute reflection on your experience with the course materials.)

READ: The Response of Sam Durant to the Walker Art Museum Controversy

READ: A Conversation with Denise Levertov

DL: …I’ve always told students if there’s a weak place in a poem, weak because it’s sort of vague, don’t try to rewrite that passage from the realization that it needs rewriting. Go back to the experience itself and look around and see what you see—Oh, look! There’s a little weed growing between those two stones on this road that I’m walking on. It’s got a little yellow flower. I didn’t notice that before. Or, what a peculiar stain on that wall. It looks like a goat! You can see all manner of details if you put yourself back in the place where you were, literally, or at the time of conceiving the poem. It takes attention to concrete, visual detail—not visual alone, of course—sensory detail, that releases so many understandings and releases language that you hadn’t planned for, but which is demanded by the need to precisely articulate what you are experiencing or have experienced. Abstractions just won’t do.

READ: Learn an Easy-To-Do, Hands-On Nature Ritual

REFLECT: Do an hour of Spiritual Ecology Field Work (Use the above ritual prompt of marking a transition in your life. Don’t think too much about which one, but decide which one BEFORE going out to make the nature altar.) Extra credit to write an American Sentence during or after the experience.

READ: RIP Carla Bley (The Guardian)

LISTEN: R.I.P. Carla:

WATCH: Cheese of TRUTH! Extra credit to actually do this.

READ: He Carves More

WRITE: Please write a 500 word reflection on this week’s course materials suitable for a check-in.

READ/LISTEN: Interview with Barry McKinnon

WRITE: Phrase Acrostic. Take a phrase or two from either long article from this week (sorry about that), ideally from one which you had a strong reaction to, and write a poem using the technique explained in the handout. You could do more than one, as practice at any method or skill allows for greater understanding and even mastery. See poetry postcards. You could even use a song title or two from the Carla Bley playlist to write a Carla Bley poem or even elegy, but TRIGGER WARNING you may end up going bananas.)