Fall/Winter 2018 Workshop Series
Can You Learn To Be A Poet?: A Writing Workshop with Nick Jaina
Is the ability to write poetry something you are born with, or can you cultivate it?
Naomi Shihab Nye says, “Your life is a poem.”
What if we don’t see it in ourselves? What if our life feels mundane and unpoetic?
Most academic approaches to writing poetry stress an intellectual understanding of the mechanics, and discuss the great canon of poetry that already exists.
This approach is important but incomplete. Nick Jaina believes that poetry also comes from having a reverence for the world. The best way to do that is not intellectual, but actually physical.
Nick will lead a poetry writing workshop that entails a short guided meditation, some light movement, a meditation walk, and writing exercises. It will culminate with students reading poetry aloud while Nick provides a musical soundtrack.
Poetry was meant to be read lovingly to someone else, but it is rare that we get a chance to do this in an environment where we feel reverence for ourselves and the world.
When you read poetry over music, it gives you the reader more confidence to slow down, leave space, and wring the truth out of every word. The way those words feel vibrating in your body, the way they feel in the air, the way the people in the room react to them, all of those sensations are part of the poem. Poetry is a living thing that needs to be let loose. We can never know it just from its domesticated form, watching it pace around in a cage.
The world can use more poets, precisely because it is a job that pays nothing. It aims to bring a heightened focus on true things. Come join Nick in learning how to be a poet.
Nick Jaina is an author and musician. His first book, the memoir Get It While You Can, was a finalist for the 2016 Oregon Book Award. He has released several albums, co-founded a ballet company, recording soundtracks for feature films and documentaries. He teaches writing workshops around the world that involve Tarot, meditation, theatrical movement, and, of course, love.
COST: $40
BRING: Bring pen and paper. Please no laptops. Coffee, tea and water provided.
This workshop is for students age 13 years old and up. 15 students max.
RSVP: souwesterfrontdesk@gmail.com or 360-642-2542
The Sou’wester Lodge at 3728 J Place, Seaview, WA 98644
This class is part of the Fall/Winter 2018 Workshop Series. All classes are open to the public and all skill levels welcome. Visit www.souwesterlodge.com/calendar to see the full schedule of artist-led workshops.