Kortney Garrison

The Rule of Six

30 May 2018 by Kortney

I was looking for something else entirely and found this description of what the University offers written by Brian Doyle: “creativity and innovation and epiphany and camaraderie and discovery and enlightenment and laughter and love, and of those things there is no end.” I was smitten with his words, loved the overflowing list, the way his prose always tips over into prayer.

About the same time I was thinking about our homeschool days together based on a framework created by Melissa Wiley. Many moons ago, she began reviewing her days with her children by asking if their days had included

good books
imaginative play
encounters with beauty
ideas to ponder + discuss
prayer
meaningful work

To create our Rule of Six, I used most of Brian Doyle’s list and added some poems because our days always include poems.

Creativity from Mary Oliver’s “Sometimes”

Instructions for living a life:

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it.

Epiphany from Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “God’s Grandeur”

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

Camaraderie from T.S. Eliot’s “Little Gidding”

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Discovery from Wendell Berry’s “The Country of Marriage”

We are more together

than we know, how else could we keep on discovering

we are more together than we thought?

Enlightenment from Steve Kowit’s “Notice”

kiss the earth & be joyful,

& make much of your time,

& be kindly to everyone,

Laughter and Love from Gregory Orr’s “Father’s Song”

Round and round: bow and kiss.

I try to teach her caution;

she tries to teach me risk.

Everyday Writing :: Writing Every Day

3 April 2018 by Kortney

It’s April 3rd–the first day of the #100DayProject! I’m not participating this year, but I’ve been thinking about daily practice nonetheless. Here are a few guide posts that are helping me craft a sustainable writing practice, a poetry-centered life.

Tiny Goals

The key to long term success for me has been setting a daily goal that is so small it’s hard to ignore! Does that sound counterintuitive? For now, in this season of life, I am interested in keeping my hand moving. In showing up to the page every day. This week my writing goal is focused on opening my comp book before I open the computer. It’s a small shift, but it’s bearing good fruit.

I love working along with the One Thing Today podcast. There’s a gentle introduction and then the invitation to work together for 20 minutes. And do you notice that title? It’s not all the things, just one thing.

I’ve also spent a morning working along with Helen McLaughlin. On the second Friday of every month she hosts a free Get It Done Day. She provides a friendly space for you to connect with others, troubleshoot roadblocks, and have a little accountability. Like everything Helen does, these days are infused with wonder and a light touch. Highly recommended.

Stack the Deck in Your Favor

As I’ve been working steadily on my Homeschool MFA the past 6 months, I’ve found a few resources that are making it a little easier to live the writing life. And every little bit helps!

Write with a prompt. Tweetspeak posts a new prompt every Monday. A tiny bit of inspiration to begin your week!
Take a class! I’ll be taking Holly Wren Spaulding’s Poetry Immersion for the next two months. She describes the workshop as “a retreat. An act of love. A personal revolution. A spell. A way of being in the world.” Sounds like magic to me!
Austin Kleon has a low-tech habit tracker that I love. It’s not tied to a specific project or the calendar. And one of the rewards is tacos–always a win!
The #100DayProject started today! It’s a great way to build a little community and get serious about your creative work. It always takes me at least 120 days to get all my days in, but that’s just fine. It’s just about showing up.
The Ann Kroeker Writing Coach podcast is an invaluable tool for writers! Ann’s thoughtful, gentle suggestions keep me moving in the right direction.

Know your tendency

Know how to motivate yourself and what the roadblocks might be. Play to your strengths!

Homeschooling MFA Update

18 March 2018 by Kortney

In late September I traveled to Nashville for work. Sarah Mackenzie had turned in the manuscript for her new book just a few weeks before. She said she felt like she wanted to be in the daily habit of writing, to keep the gears oiled and ready. I figured she could use some company, so I decided to join her. All weekend I kept mentioning Sarah’s plans to write everyday in October. By Saturday night when we were saying our goodbyes, 7 women had committed to 30 minutes of writing every day in the coming month. Would work emails count? How about blog posts? I said, it all counts! And we started out.

My focus for the month was getting ready for a November poetry workshop taught by Holly Wren Spaulding. I wanted to get in the habit of showing up, so that when I added in prompts and provocations from Holly, I could respond. I spent my quiet, darkening mornings with haiku cards and stacks of books, my black pens and composition book. The workshop was wonderful, and I could meet it with my full attention because I’d been writing all month long. Though you wouldn’t know it from this blog, the habit has pretty much stuck! My notebooks are full to bursting.

I spent the month of December going through the year’s journals, finding poems or fragments that seemed promising. I copied them out by hand on loose leaf paper. By the end of the month, I had a reservation for a night away during Christmas break and a stack of poems that needed revising. Just as I was returning from the writing retreat–there was jazz and wine and a walk through the vineyards to a waterfall where I saw a hummingbird drink–I saw a notification that Solitary Plover was accepting submissions for the Winter 2018 issue. I found my three most Niedecker-like poems. It wasn’t hard, I have such an affinity for her work. I held my breath, sent in my first ever poetry submission, and it was accepted!

How has it taken so long to arrive perfectly in place? It feels a little late to just be having children who sleep through the night, to just be revising and submitting poems. And yet…the road has risen up to meet me at every step. I have arrived exactly where I need to be. At home, at rest, belonging. Comfortable in my own skin with good work that uses every bit of me.

Oblique Strategies

28 February 2018 by Kortney

In 1975 the musician Brian Eno was in the studio feeling blocked. Ideas for new music just weren’t flowing. He came up with a collection of Oblique Strategies. Ways to come out the problem from a new angle. Instead of facing the issue head on or worrying about what writer’s block meant for the rest of his career, he took a sideways approach. He added whimsy and lightness.

I first heard about these ideas from the poet Holly Wren Spaulding. (By the way, today is the last day to sign up for her current poetry class–21 days of poems and prompts and at the end, it’s Spring!) She encourages her students to create their own set of Axiom Cards, simple ways to access the heat of our writing.

Homeschoolers don’t exactly experience writer’s block, but we do face roadblocks. The reading lesson, the writing assignment, the math pages. When even one of our kids is facing a tough learning day, it can make the mood of the whole house tense and unpleasant. Not an ideal learning environment. Hard work is good, but only if it’s producing the results we want.

What if we took a different approach? What if we developed some oblique strategies for dealing with homeschooling angst.

Take a walk
Take a nap
Make muffins
Turn on some music
Read a poem
Go to the library
Forget the routine
Read to the dog
Focus on rhythm
Play a game
Give a backrub
Make a pot of tea
Pet the cat
Light a candle
Sing a song

Brian Eno’s strategies are written on cards so there’s an element of chance involved. You don’t get to choose your strategy! It’s one more way to sidestep our judging, fearful brains. I glued index cards to some pretty rice paper and then cut the cards in half. Sturdy and cute!

None of these ideas is going to magically teach your daughter fractions! That’s not the point. The idea is to lighten our touch, and see what can happen when we make even a small shift.

Kortney Garrison

The Rule of Six