The Earth and Sun and the Animals: Poetry, Place and the Natural World.
When the poet Rilke had writer’s block, he was advised by Rodin to go to the zoo, stare at an animal for a few hours and write from his observations. Rilke isn’t alone in experiencing the way in which the terrific life of the natural world can give so much energy to poems, and in this week of writing, we will aim to get the full life of nature into our poems.
During the course, we will look at a range of subjects, from wild animals to domestic animals, birds to insects. But we will also consider the ways in which trees, views, mountains, plants, rivers and walks can all offer brilliant subjects. We will aim to write poems about places we know well, pinning down their energy and grandeur. But we will also aim to write poems that travel, get out there, have mud on their boots. Poems about the natural world don’t stop at observation and description, and we will look at a wide range of approaches, from narrative to monologues to the surreal, the natural world as subject and the natural world as setting for poems about humans.
To read some poems is to see a bird soaring overhead, or even to share its flight. Whitman once wrote, ‘This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals,’ and we shall take this as our writing mantra for the week. If you’re keen to write poems which live with the wind in their hair rather than the smell of the study, this course will give you inspiration for a new group of fluttering, roaring, blooming poems.
Join us for an exciting writing course from your own home and a week of experimenting with poetry. Three hours of group workshops to inspire new work and techniques will be delivered digitally in the mornings, with afternoons set aside for your writing and one-to-one tutorials with the tutor, to help you improve your individual poems. You will be treated to two evenings of poetry readings and Q&As. In addition, we will enjoy an open mic and the course will end on Friday with a celebration of the work you have created during the sessions with us. Whatever stage you’re at with poetry, this will be an inspiring week to recharge the imagination and to fuel a host of new poems.