WORKSHOPS
Finding Our Place in the Family of Things
In these troubled times, what can a poet do? Rather than focusing our attention on the chaos and despair, perhaps the best thing we can do is find ways to praise the beauty of life and death in our world.
“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work,” Mary Oliver writes.
“I made a world out of words and it was my salvation.” Mary Oliver was mostly an ecstatic poet. She wrote praise poems, prayers and petitions.
For six weeks, join us for a deep dive into the work of Mary Oliver. We’ll discover her lyrical style and why the seeming simplicity is so satisfying. Oliver often writes in blank verse in a conversational music that we will more deeply understand by learning a poem or two by heart, walking with it, breathing it in. Then using that rhythmic pattern, write our own shadow poem. We will look at how she uses the contrasts of light and darkness. Her famous use of questions without answers draws the reader in. She says, “We are nourished by the mystery.”
When: 6 Weds, Aug 26th – 30 Sept, 2020 10am -12:30 pm AEST
Zoom Class with a 10 minute tea break
Tuition: $180 This group will be limited to 6 participants.
EMAIL me to enrol and for bank details.
Facilitator:
Laura Jan Shore is the author of the historical novel, The Sacred Moon Tree and poetry collections, Breathworks ,Water over Stone, and her latest, Afterglow. She has taught creative writing and mentored writers for 40 years. President of Dangerously Poetic Press, she has co-edited 12 poetry collections. She earned her MFA in Poetry from Pacific University, Portland, Oregon, June, 2019.
Private Mentoring
For there is never any way to go but in ~ Doris Lessing
How do we hear the wisdom of our soul? How do we recognise the themes that play through our lives? The stories we tell, the poems we write, are guideposts in the labyrinth.
Contact Laura HERE for a personal creativity plan.
Facilitator
Laura Jan Shore is the author of the historical novel, The Sacred Moon Tree and poetry collections, Breathworks, Water over Stone, which won IP Picks Best Poetry 2011 and Afterglow, Interactive Press 2020. She has taught creative writing and mentored writers for 40 years. President of Dangerously Poetic Press, she has co-edited 12 poetry collections. She earned her MFA in Poetry from Pacific University, Portland, Oregon, June, 2019.
TESTIMONALS
“I leave her workshops totally uplifted, inspired and excited by what I have achieved under her magical tutelage.”
“I always come away from Laura’s workshops inspired to write and I do. Her teaching reaches into my heart and helps me express what I need to say.…a very special teacher.”
“There’s something very inspiring about the gentle way that Laura teaches, informs, plays and has fun with language. A depth and breadth of scope and vision that is both simple and contemplative.”
“Laura’s passion for poetry goes beyond workshops to create a poetry family, a tribe who inspire and refine each other’s work. She has an unfailing variety of ways to mine the poetic seam and get words onto the page – if she’s teaching, I’m there…”