The Poetry Project

Workshop

Tuning the Instruments of Perception; 5-Session Workshop with Julian Talamantez Brolaski

Poetry has no rules—that is its great freedom. Anything can be a poem if we say it is. That gives us an incredible amount of formal leeway, but it does not free us from our obligation to familiarize ourselves with the old disciplines, the abandoned structures, the newer forms, and to always push at the edge of our craft. In this generative poetry workshop, we will explore methods of writing at the ‘apex of composition’ (Cedar Sigo), creating work through both passive (being ‘inspired,’ becoming a conduit for the receipt of information) and active modes of writing (imitation, formal experimentation, constraints) and in between (cultivating the conditions conducive to writing). We will consider that poetry happens in the body as well as on the page. Performance is a crucial part of the art of poetry. We will see the arc of the poem through from composition to its articulation as an aural or physical object. How do our poems resonate, as sound-stuff, hand-shape, emanating from our bodies? Unless you can hire someone to perform your poems, it’s crucial to learn how to embody and ‘voice’ them, to present them in physical space. This involves everything that is required of the actor as well as the singer. We will summon what Joy Harjo calls our ‘poetry ancestors’ and read the works of poets like Joanne Kyger, María Sabina, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Tyrone Williams, Iliassa Sequin, Wyatt, Chaucer, anonymous poets, and others. Individual and collaborative writing in various configurations will keep us playful and disentangled from our stylistic habits. The goal is to practice tuning our instruments of perception—to become available to information within and beyond ourselves—to the cosmic mind, the spirit and intelligence of the Poem.

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