Dear Poets,
I’ve missed you! I always worry I won’t have enough new links to entice with, then so much flies into my orbit I only dare share a handful before I wonder if anyone will read through to the wry Halloween costume idea at the end. 😉
But, let me announce the next class I’m teaching — starting next week! It was a difficult decision to not offer an evening session this round, but circumstances conspire against it. I’m madly working on my Tufts short list (and will share insights once finished) and have gotten pulled back into teaching Gender Studies, so have to limit poetry to my Friday class. I know this can be an odd time for some people, so please reach out if I can help in other ways — I’ve picked up more manuscript editing work and am always available for individual consults, edits, and encouragement.
Speaking of which, I learned a new term recently — “body doubling.” It has nothing to do with being a set stand-in nor performing stunts. As best I understand it, it simply means being present with another person in a way that helps them get through their tasks. I learned about it during a poetry class when the instructor mentioned she and her son had ADHD and “body doubling” helped them both write. I was immediately struck by how much sense this made. While I’ve never been a coffee shop worker (too much sound distracts me) a beloved library, where I’m in sight of others, has always been a haven. In the pandemic, I watched online co-working opportunities sprout up overnight. One positive change is many are still happening. Just three include: AVIM (so you’ll write that you have A Very Important Meeting in your calendar), Shut Up and Write, and “Write-Alongs” connected to the #AmWriting Podcast. I’ll encourage you to try a session or your own version of what body doubling might mean.
This McSweeney’s image and article really made me laugh: Congratulations! You did Five Minutes of Writing! Excerpt: “You did it, my friend. You wrote for a full five minutes, uninterrupted. You’re a goddamn hero.”
Yet seriously, what we do can feel so invisible, so inconsequential whether you sit through a full session or get up, with certain kinds of ‘pay offs’ so far down the line, it can be hard to stay the course — especially when other kinds of immediate gratification are calling (not just social media, but the laundry, the bills, the leaking sink). I love the idea that witnessing — the time spent, the effort made, the incremental steps taken towards a larger goal — is needed and that it can be reciprocal. Let me know if this resonates and what other ways you can try ‘doubling’ so that you meet your goals.
To that end, please join in next Friday if you can! Class info below.
Poetry Generator: This six-week sequence will introduce writers to new poems/poets with some in-class writing time and opportunity for feedback. We will also talk about how to assemble a sequence and begin to build towards a ‘micro-chapbook.’ This workshop is meant to reveal the possibilities of poetry, build community, and keep your practice lively. Ideal for both those starting out and those already working on a poetry project. Fridays, 12:30-2:30 p.m. (PST). November 4, 11, 18, (skip), December 2, 9, 16. Meeting on Zoom. $295.00. Payment through Venmo (Elline-Lipkin-1) or Paypal. Email me at Elline.Lipkin@gmail.com to reserve a spot. If you want to just stay for the writing exercises (and not feedback) let me know.
Huge congratulations to Kristin Wong whose poem, “Elegy to the Void” was just published in the journal Into the Void. So thrilled about this!
I had a brief essay published in a special edition of The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, (Carework and Writing During Covid). I wrote it well over a year ago, just as we were emerging from lockdown, so it’s a surprise to see it again.
Sharing with you:
Did you know it was Sylvia Plath’s 90th birthday on October 27th? I was thrilled to see so many tributes spring up. Here is a mini-suite of poems (starting on page 4) with “Plath at 90” by poet Nicole Tallman. Eons ago, I loved getting prompts from the Plath Poetry Project, but it looks like they are on hiatus.
I was glad to read this excellent, long article about Sharon Olds in the NYT (“Sex, Death, and Family: Sharon Olds is Still Shockingly Intimate”). She endures.
And I didn’t know about Mike Davis, considered a quintessential L.A. writer, but have been reading touching tributes about him all week.
Since it’s Halloween weekend I feel obliged to mention Annie Finch’s community Poetry Witch. It looks like she’s expanded this to Poetry Witch Press. I love that she has a section of her website entitled “Poems, Spells, and Rituals.” 🧙♀️🧙♀️🧙♀️
Marking my calendar for the next installment of the Woodberry Poetry Room’s Vocarium series. Zoom right on in to their YouTube channel (no pre-registration required). I’m especially excited for Mary Ruefle and Rae Armantrout on November 16th, and will try to catch Rosmarie Waldrop on Nov. 3rd. I have long admired her translations of little known French/Egyptian poet Edmond Jabès.
I also keep an eye on The Boutelle-Day Poetry Center at Smith College since they have such great (in person and online) programming. Looks like they threw Sylvia Plath (an alum) a fab 90th bash.
“I need to go to therapy soon, and by therapy I mean Target” made me laugh. Who knew this was a thing? I totally get it.
At this time of year I always want to share one of my favorite Louise Gluck poems: “All Hallows.”
It’s true, one year I really did dress up as the embodiment of Sylvia Plath’s poem, “The Arrival of the Bee Box" (and somewhere there’s a picture to prove it). But if you have a spare sheet lying around (à la Charlie Brown special) this costume strikes me as equal parts easy/painful to inhabit!
Wishing you a lot of Reese’s on Monday and some time in which to read and dwell with creative spirits. 🎃 ✍️ 🎃 ✍️ 🎃 ✍️ 🎃 ✍️ 🎃