Rewilding the Psyche through Poetry: A Five-Part Online Writing Course

The poet Wallace Stevens proposed an “environmentalism of the imagination”–a call for us to actively carve out an untamed space within our own psyches. Much of the written word, however, is designed to domesticate and demystify, taking us away from wildness. But poetry, with its deep taproots, has the opposite effect.

What is it like to write from some untamed part of the self? To stalk an image as you would a feral creature? To feel the instinctual move through you and onto the page?

During this experiential course, we’ll explore the works of nature poets like Joy Harjo, Gary Snyder, Mary Oliver, and others. Then, taking up our own pens as walking sticks, we’ll see how writing poetry can help us embody an ecological awareness that results in surprising insights into our interconnectedness with nature.

Though held on Zoom, there will be the ability to take some of the writing prompts out of doors. As well, Mary will provide writing assignments between sessions that can be done in nature.

• Session 1: Stalking the Image
  We practice skills that can bring us closer to the image, so that we can encounter it with full-bodied presence before we bring it to life on the page.

• Session 2: Embodying the Wild
  We explore how writing poetry allows us to inhabit more-than-human perspectives.
• Session 3: Letting Go of Control
  We learn to tap into the creative power of nature to unleash our own creativity.
• Session 4: Moving Beyond the Fences
  We refuse to be penned in (pun intentional). What’s it like to move into wilder, untrammeled territory. To risk? To roam? To write outside the lines.
• Session 5: Beginning with the Soft Animal of Your Body
  We come home to poetry through engaging our feral, feeling, full-bodied self.