Poemcrazy is becoming increasingly
well-known on campuses and to teachers as
well as to students of writing and creativity.
It’s been used as part of the core
curriculum in places ranging from the Denver
and Rhode Island Public Schools to Brown
and Evergreen Universities, the Virginia
Writing Project and the Guggenheim Museum
Curriculum online. poemcrazy is on numerous
lists of “bestselling” or “favorite”
books about poetry on the internet.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
10 am - 4:30 pm
Full day art retreat: $130 (includes lunch, beverages, some supplies) Where: Clackmas, Oregon (20 minutes from Portland International Airport and downtown Portland)
Susan invites us
into a realm where poetry is accessible, where poems are moments of
discovery that often arrive unexpectedly. Susan has found that in a
safe, free setting, surrounded with words, we can each write poems that
express our soul and spirit—a playful, often profound and healing
experience.
Together we bring forth a word pool, gathering
words from books of poems and from within and around ourselves. We
borrow, jot, steal and conjure words that invite our soul’s expression.
Next, we create images, practice close observation, begin to develop
metaphor and gradually move into “dreamsense” where we explore who we
are, where we come from and where we’re going.
We may walk
silently in nature and gather objects, describe them and learn what
they have to tell us. We may create collages in boxes with found
objects, words and photos and write a poem of gathering. We’ll get
happily busy making something from nothing, (sometimes with amazing
frivolity.)
We may write invocations, asking objects to bring
us qualities we need. We may use guided imagery to take us to our
childhood home, become an object in the center of the house and write
from that perspective. We may meet with our shadow and write our
shadow’s poem, which can be a moving and transformational experience.
We may spin out love poems to ourselves, another, a tree, a child, or
the universe. We’ll focus on opposites, play, wholeness. We’ll spiral
forth treasure from our mysterious imaginations, and share (or not.)
Our work/play will take on a life of its own and guide us.
SUPPLIES:
Bring paper and a pen you love. Small boxes if it’s easy. Color pens
and/or color pencils optional. (I’ll have a stash, along with elmer’s
glue.)
Susan is the author of
poemcrazy: freeing your life with words (in a 20th printing from Three
Rivers, Random House) and a new book Foolsgold: Making Something from
Nothing (and freeing your creative process). (Harmony Books, Random
House, 2007.) Poemcrazy was a long-running Quality Paperback Book Club
Selection and Foolgold is now featured in One Spirit catalog.
Susan also has a chapbook of poems, Bathing with Ants (Bear Star
Press). She conducts workshops on writing and creativity throughout the
U.S. She has two grown children and lives in a co-housing village in
Chico, California and sometimes on a houseboat in Sausalito.
Comments on Susan’s workshops include:
Exhilarating,
playful and profound. Opens a tremendous creative frontier for people. Kathlyn Hendricks, author of Conscious Loving and The Conscious Heart.
I didn’t want to say goodbye to that day. William, SED 5th grader, Chico.
Susan doesn’t teach poetry so much as unlock it. Her teaching itself is poetry. Amy Tullius, Poetry and the Piano Workshop
A day glistening with fun, profound insight, and soul-shifting poetry--that I wrote to myself. Layton Fisher, Hendricks Institute
Something inside of me peeked out. Something I had forgotten. Carrie Marie Tusman, Santa Barbara
Sitting and writing poems with Susan islike taking a lid off a jar. Laura, Chico
See what Teesha Moore has to say on her blog about Susan's newest book by clicking here (Go to June 12th)
