What I Learned, Unlearned, and Relearned from Jane Hirshfield

Here are some of my notes from Jane Hirshfield's workshop and bits from her craft talk during the Napa Valley Writers' Conference last week. Fragments, really. Advice for writers, readers, and humans alike. Apply them in whatever way works for you. Enjoy.

• Sounds tilt a poem. Uneven steps on a staircase, the rhythm of attention. The reader will look hard for solid ground. 
• A stanza is a room.
• Sound-heavy, non-narrative poems best move by music. You will know when the poem is "good" because it feels good in your body. 
• By paying attention to syntax, rhyme, assonance, rhythm, alliteration, and so on, you can train yourself out of the weight of dead metaphors. 
• The tools of a poem are the tools of lying. 
• Poets are tricksters. Words out of bounds. Alter the landscape of the given.
• A poem isn't artless just because it says it is. 
• Poetry is played on the instrument of the reader. 
• Humans know death, but we don't know when., the impossible belief of it. 
• Omnipossible. 
• Follow the rule of three. 
• People will read the poem they read. 
• Try things.
• Poetry is about the preservation of an inner life and subjectivity.
• We save what we can. 
• Manage emotions through rhythm. Fragments slow the reader. 
• Prepare the reader for abstraction with images.
• Give yourself permission to travel, to invent, to go somewhere.

Laura and the Poetry Conference: A Love Affair

I'm suffering from PCW: Poetry Conference Withdrawal.

You know how some brides feel a big let down after the wedding is over? Because the excitement of planning and preparing for a big event is through and life is hum-drum once again? It's sort of like that. Like poetry and I had a love affair, actually. All week long it was just me and poetry - and all the other poets having poetry affairs.

"Don't you wish we could have an orgy?" said a conference-attendee and my newest poet-friend.

Yes. I really do. 

Part of my overall bummed-out-ness is due to the fact that I'm ramping up with work again. But, but, wait! I said. Poetry and I were just getting into a good rhythm. We hadn't been getting along for many months. Things were finally in the groove, me and poetry for a few hours each morning. Now I have to adjust my whole schedule again and lose my momentum? Nooooo!

Except I don't. At least that's what my therapist tells me.

Isn't it easy to let the really important things slip from our fingertips? I am simultaneously feeling like I have no time and I have a whole lifetime to spend with poetry. Today the Best Therapist in the Universe said, "I feel like we have to assume that your block of writing time is the number one priority. That comes first. It's most important." She went on, "I feel protective of it - you need to protect it too."

Damn, girl.

So that's the plan. Keeping those large poetry blocks in my schedule is key to my sanity, and also my success as a writer. So while poetry and I won't be having a week-long orgy anytime soon, we will have thrice-weekly afternoon trysts. Yes, yes please.

LitShare: Inflections, Calls for Submission, and 100% BS-free Writing Advice

I returned from a life-changing trip to Napa on Friday with five solid poem drafts, two of which I've already revised. I worked with Jane Hirshfield and 11 truly amazing poets all week. I learned more than I could have imagined, such as Jane's invented poetic form, the Inflection, which she writes about here by using the form itself. Here is another one. Can you figure out the form? 

The LA Times is looking for opinionated poets to submit some opinionated poems. Dancing Girl Press is creating an anthology to be revealed at AWP in Seattle. They are seeking typewritten poetry or hybrid works that contain typewritten elements. Like on a typewriter.

Reading in Pittsburgh! Robert Yune reads with Nick Sturm and Carrie Long at a distillery on Monday, August 12th. Lots of boozy deliciousness. Proceeds from drinks benefit the Greater Pittsburgh Literary Council. More info here.

Jane Hirshfield & Laura, 2013 Napa Valley Writers' Conference

Delightful word canapés! Jonterri Gadson has a bunch of lush, corporeal, earthy poems up at VerseWrights. Angele Ellis wrote haikus for Lilliput Review's blog and has a piece of fiction at Prime Number. Also, Donna Vorreyer has a new book out from Sundress Publications entitled The House of Many Windows.

Concerning craft: Jane Hertenstein talks about memory and writing flash memoir for WOW! Women On Writing. Also, an old interview with Donald Hall discussing the Art of Poetry for the Paris Review. In this video via Poets & Writers, poet Nikki Giovanni says, "poetry is air and water and fire and soil... one of those basics that will always be there." Those of you who remember Def Poetry Jam will enjoy Mos Def's fan-boy introduction.

In publishing news, Amazon may not be the cheapest game in town for books. Who is? Small presses seem to offer better deals, says some folks with anecdotal evidence (good enough for me!).

Cheryl Strayed offers writing advice that's 100% awesome - and BS-free!
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