Kortney Garrison

Every morning, before the rest of the day crowds in and my attention is scattered, I come to the page.

But what counts as writing every day? Just showing up? A few lines of journaling? A completed poem? Something in between?

For me the answer shifts. I intuitively follow a practice…until it feels like it’s time for a change. That usually happens maybe once a season. Here are a few recent schedules to give you a taste of what my mornings include:

There’s a lot of overlap between these two lists. Items move in and out organically. One relative constant? There’s a reward at the end! Reading Shaunta Grimes and investigating her resources is my reward for moving through the practices.

Morning writing practice isn’t revolutionary, and it’s not a perfect system. But it is enough.

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

“I want to consider what William Stafford’s daily writing pages contained and how they worked for him–
how something like his approach might work for any of us who choose to give such daily writing practice a try.”

There will sometimes be an “aphorism” –a freestanding sentence, an idea, a question, a note about a pattern he perceived, a puzzle.

William Stafford would write a sentence that “lifted off” from daily experience.

This provisional understanding from daily life begins to raise the writer’s attention out of the mundane into the gently miraculous realm of poetry.

–Kim Stafford

Four Elements of a Daily Writing Page in William Stafford’s Practice

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Just in case yesterday’s post got you excited about taking a class, here are a few more that I’ve taken and loved.

And a couple that are on my list for the new year!

Top of the list is Lori’s Journaling Boot +Reboot. This is a gem of a class that I return to again and again. Start small. Honor your efforts. Remind yourself of the work you want to be doing. These themes run throughout my Homeschool MFA and they are all from Lori!

Julianna Baggott’s Efficient/Creativity has me thinking more about my writing process. It’s less something that is mysterious and more something I can pay attention to and use well. I like this class so much I bought it for two of my friends.

Holly Wren Spaulding’s name comes up quite a lot around here. When I found her work, something opened. A sense of possibility. A contemporary of mine who was writing poems that I loved, poems that were related formally to the work that I was beginning. Holly is an ally and an artist.

AP got a Masterclass subscription for his birthday and I’ve dipped into the Billy Collins class. But really it’s the David Mamet class that has been most interesting. True story–AP wooed me with Mamet short stories read aloud at the Coffee People in the Park Blocks.

A few years ago my friend, Nicki, told me about a class with David Whyte that she was taking. It’s been on list since then. And I so much love the work of both David Steindl-Rast and David Whyte.

I recently found the work of a local poet named Sage Cohen. She’s smart and funny and lives in town! I can’t wait to take a class with her! She does offer one online for those farther afield called Write a Poem a Day. Sounds like you should take it, huh?

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

Reading + writing every day. Going out + about every month. Gathering with other creatives every season. And finally, taking a class twice a year.

This is a doable plan, right? Of course, your milage may vary, but this has been a life-giving plan for me.

ModPo is the class that started it all way back in 2013 when Joseph was but 9 months old. This was the first time that I had turned my attention to the making of poems. This is when I discovered the poetry of Lorine Niedecker and Bernadette Mayer! I dipped in and out this fall–such a community of learners have gathered around these poems.

Last Spring I took Intro to Poetry with Sally Thomas. Such richness! She is a working poet, and she approaches poems as such. She’s looking to understand how the poems do their work on you. This class convinced me to give up children’s poems and concentrate our memory work on Yeats, Donne, and Hughes. We are working on “The Road Not Taken” right now. And have Auden waiting for us after the turn of the year.

I also found this Yale class that I may listen in on…how are you deepening your practice through continued learning?

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