Foundations | Earth | Influences
Poetry as Sacred Text
I grew up with poetry in church. Unitarian Universalists love their poetry, particularly nature poems and poetry about community, love, justice, spirituality.
I grew up with Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese and Wendyll Berry’s The Peace of Wild Things. I grew up with Rumi and Rilke, with E.E. Cummings, with Starhawk and Maya Angelou.
I grew up with Shel Siverstein's A Light in the Attic
and A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Lewis Stevenson.
Poetry was the sacred text of my upbringing, but I didn’t know that then. In fact, I only realized it after I had become a poet myself.
When I began writing, the words flowing easily through my fingers and onto the page were reminiscent of those early influences. It has taken work to find my own voice, to add in influences with intention over the years, and in the end, we never truly lose our connection to those who came before - in fact, it is that connection that draws so many of us together as writers and creators in this world.
The words we read shape our concept of poetry. I love poems that sing, have a lyricism and a fluidity, poems that make sense. I love poems that flood my mind with images of trees and sand and bees and lilacs. I love poems that make me cry and laugh at the same time. I've learned to love poems that feel wrong in the mouth, that challenge what I know and believe. I've learned to appreciate many things, but I am at my core, most at home with the simple cadences of my childhood.
Writing Prompts
This week, I invite you to consider your own influences.
Who did you grow up reading, hearing, admiring, disdaining?
Were you raised with a central religious text, with stories, myths, books, songs that you can see infiltrating your work?
Create a little list, gather some of your favorites together.
Then…set a timer for 10 minutes and free write about the following questions:
What are my obsessions as a poet or writer?
How do I pursue them and let them have their way with my poems?
What points/aspects/ qualities hold the most energy for you in poems
– those you read, and those you write?
When you read, what is it that draws you to a poem, makes it resonate for you?
When you write, what are your sparks?
Do they cluster around one or more hot spots?
Poetry & Art Prompts - Foundations/Earth/Influences
Where we come from, what our influences are, what grounds us in the work?
Prompt foraging
Go for a walk outside and take photos of things around your neighborhood. Find words in the wild, look up the names of plants, trees, herbs.
Gather stones from the river, look for hidden treasure.
Write 3 pieces based on what you find
Some themes for you to play with
Hermit/rest/contemplation/meditation/ease/earth/grounding
Earth themes: grounding, growth, safety, money, security, beauty, sensuality, sex, physicality, home, comfort, plants, animals, nature, green, brown, dirt, root, feet, cave drawings
Natural events: earthquake, volcano, rocks, mountains, caves, stalactites
10 Poetry Prompts
______________
I remember the sun…
A hat full of blueberries
The water was almost too warm…
I was finally, fully lost…
The screen door slammed…
It began like that…
In the new normal…
The set-up was quite simple…
It grew from nothing…
The heat took over…
Thanks for being here! Please leave a comment with any poems or thoughts or inspirations that come through for you!
Some things I've been up to lately
In January, I started taking an Advanced Poetry class at The Writer’s Studio (which has been ongoing since then)
In February, I led a writer’s retreat in Cape Cod
In March, I participated in a poetry reading at Molly’s bookstore here in Melrose, MA
In April, Earth & Verse, here on Substack!
In June, I released “Hermit Season: poems & visions,” my newest collection that celebrates rest and recovery from burnout.
In July, I received a formal offer from Mandala Earth to write a new book (featuring poems and photography and rituals) by the end of the year for publication in 2025!
ALSO,
Beginning in September, I am planning to host a monthly Zoom writing call for paid subscribers, so consider upgrading if you want to be invited! (pretty sure you have to upgrade from the web and not the app for now - let me know if you need help). We will meet for 90 mins once a month to catch up and chat about our work, do a little writing, and share writerly things together.
I so look forward to gathing together to write xo Tanya