About the Offering

Yusef Komunkyakaa said, “Don’t write what you know. Write what you are willing to discover.” In this poetry workshop we’ll concentrate on writing toward the deep, difficult-to-reach poem, writing that relies on intuition, half-glimpsed inner visions—our truest, most essential take on the world. To get there we’ll go by hunch, by faith and duende, using the maps left by others in the form of poems. We’ll engage with ecstatic poetry, work that shares attributes with the mystical: the desire (and fear) of being broken open, of being known. We’ll find time for the anti-ecstatic as well, moments when the prayer fails, when what’s revealed is wild and unmanageable. Together, we’ll generate new work and workshop the writing that is most pressing to you. Overall, the emphasis will be on challenging habits of mind rather than polishing existing poems.

Please have at least 10 pages of current work, the writing that most attracts you but also resists completion, though we will also be generating new work each day.

Send 5 poems ahead of time to: MConway@csbsju.edu

LIVE TIME: 2pm-4pm EST.

Materials Needed

No specific materials needed for this offering.