I just recently wrote about our approach to poetry study and memorization in our homeschool. But I use similar tactics as a part of my own poetry practice. Wide exposure and deep dives.

Copywork slows reading way down. While you might be tempted to flip through a collection and read with scattered attention, writing by hand creates the conditions for paying attention. Formal matters, like line breaks and punctuation, are foregrounded.

This month I began a new copywork project. I am copying by hand all of Ursula K. LeGuin’s most recent book of poems called So Far So Good.

Each morning I begin this work while the sky is dark, the house is quiet, and the coffee is hot. It’s an easy way to approach the page and begin to turn my attention to writing. Her poems are fine companions and teachers.

If you’d like to hear more about how copywork might inform your own process, Ann Kroeker produced an excellent podcast on the topic.

To see all the posts in the series Listening to My Life :: Homeschooling an MFA in Poetry, click here.

An essential part of my reading that doesn’t show up on the list of fiction and non-fiction is the poetry that I read everyday. This practice comes from my teacher, Holly Wren Spaulding, who uses other people’s poems as a way to prime the pump of her own writing. Reading poems makes writing poems more fluid. Makes sense!

Holly is teaching a free poetry writing workshop on November 20th called All of It. I’m blocking off that hour as a respite from the pull of a busy season and would love for you to join me!

Poems in Your Inbox

An easy way to add poems into your day is to have them delivered each morning. I’ve subscribed to Tweetspeak, Writer’s Almanac, and just now I’m enjoying the poems from Paris Review. Even though it makes me want a subscription to the print magazine nearly every day!

One Poem Each Week

This practice comes from Robert Pinsky. He suggests picking a poem and reading it every day for a week. I keep a running list of poems that cross my path in my MFA Notebook, and pick one each week. I ‘m always surprised at the richness that rises to the surface as I read throughout the week. In a year I’ve collected a personal anthology of poems that I know intimately.

Reading Deeply from One Poet

This summer at Cloud and Leaf Bookstore, I picked up the last collection of poems by Ursula K LeGuin. Oh they are beauties! Each morning I copy out by hand one of her poems. But I’ll tell you more about that tomorrow!

To see all the posts in the series Listening to My Life :: Homeschooling an MFA in Poetry, click here.

Between now and the end of the year I want to finish up a few books that I’ve started. There will probably be an Ann Patchett novel or two, maybe I’ll start the Earthsea Trilogy again as well! But here’s what’s officially on my list:

Augustine. Confessions.
This moved to the top of the list after Father Schall died this year. If I read a chapter each week, I can finish by the end of the year….

Molly Gloss. Unforseen: Stories.
Molly writes characters that I can’t stop thinking about. I tell my kids stories about them as if they are people I once knew.

Lyanda Lynn Haupt. Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds.
Lyanda simply said, Mammals don’t outsource the care of their young. With one sentence, this book set me on the course I am still walking.

Doris Orgel. My Mothers’ Daughter.
Just finished this today. My daughter and I read it as part of our Greek myths study this Fall.

Elizabeth Vandiver. Classical Mythology.
I am listening to these audio lectures. Almost done!

Kareem Abdual Jabbar. Coach Wooden and Me.
Reading this with my son–the second book by Kareem that I’ve read this year. We are also memorizing “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost because Coach Wooden loved it!

Julianna Baggott. Efficient/Creativity.
Run, don’t walk to get this series of audio lectures! You can listen to the first one for free. Julianna is funny and smart and so fun to spend time with. I took these lectures with me on my Fall writing retreat and will be working though them again. If you are serious about improving your writing process, you will learn so much.

Susan Shaughnessy. Walking on Alligators.
This is a book of daily readings that I got from my friend, Sarah. So good. I am reading one before bed as a way to seed my dreams (a la Julianna Baggott) and give me something beside the looming to-do list to ponder as I fall asleep.

Pam Barnhill. Better Together.
Reading this for work along with a fabulous group of women. You could read along with us! It’s a great exploration of Morning Time–one of the essential parts of our learning together.

To see all the posts in the series Listening to My Life :: Homeschooling an MFA in Poetry, click here.