Kortney Garrison

Homeschooling With Ease

Poetry Everyday

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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.

Last Quarter Books

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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.

The Homeschool MFA Notebook

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This is where the magic happens! In this notebook I track three simple things: the week’s reading, watching, and writing.

My composition book is where my daily writing happens. But the Homeschool MFA Notebook lives in the handsome green Leuchtturm from Modern Mrs. Darcy up there. But I’m almost finished with that one! And going to be getting one from Minimalism Art. In it I track what I’ve been reading that week, what movies I’ve seen or good writing podcasts I’ve listened to, and what the week’s writing looks like.

It doesn’t seem like much. But even this tiny ritual marks that I am serious about this work. I keep a running list of craft books I want to read. And a collection of Lost Lines–overheard pieces of conversation that seem like they are meant for a poem. When I submit poems to journals, I celebrate that bravery here. And when I hear back, I record that too.

But really the main work of the Homeschool MFA Notebook is just a place to check in, to affirm again the path that I’m on and the active ways I’m pursuing it.

How do you track your most important work?

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

Listening to My Life :: Homeschooling an MFA in Poetry

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Last summer, my sweet friend Kara, got me a subscription to Cozy Blue Stitch Club. I love the designs that Liz creates and was so happy to know that new projects would be coming my way.

The last pattern to arrive was called Evening Walk–a field of wild grasses with a line of trees behind and flock of birds overhead. The scene looked so much like the view from our house across the river to the West Hills. I love the line of fir trees at the top of the ridge, and I knew those tiny blue birds were actually geese flying to the river.

A few years ago I came across an interview with the former poet laureate Ted Kooser. He talked about his daily writing routine. He comes to the page every day because “you got to be there when the geese come flyin’ in.”

That simple phrase has become a touchstone for me. A little nudge toward the work I want to be doing. I want to show up every day so that I’m ready when inspiration alights. In season and out of season.

From the bluff above the river where we live, we watch the geese flying over, hear their calls, and see the neat Vs come unraveled. And every time it’s a reminder of this work.

This month I’m going to be writing about my Homeschool MFA experience–what’s working and what I’ve learned in the first two years of this project. I’d love for you to join me. And do tell me what you are working on!

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