Robert Bly wrote an intriguing little book called Leaping Poetry some forty years ago. His ideas have followed me around ever since.

We will start by doing some simple physical and vocal warm-ups to get the juices flowing between our reptile brain, our mammalian brain and our forebrain of pure light (yes, everybody has one). Then we will look at poems from different cultures and eras which exemplify work coming from the body, the heart and the soul. We will spend at least a half an hour on a long in-class writing session. Our focus will be on allowing ourselves to "leap" (or in some cases, hop or stride or catapult--whatever suits you best) between observation, memory, emotion, and imagination. Great poems are often born in the muck of personal experience and bloom into a universal consciousness. But there is no set trajectory.

All skill levels welcome.