Dear Friends,
Earlier this week, I announced my writing community, Conscious Writers Collective. The feedback was wonderfully affirming, and I just want to say the most sincere thank you.
I also happened to reread an interview with Hanif Abdurraqib (one of the most brilliant writers and loveliest humans) this week, and it dawned on me that what he says here reflects the heart of my teaching ethos:
“When we talk about ‘the work,’ as writers, so many of us mean the actual work of writing…I realized that ‘the work’ is also the work of living. It is the work of loving others when we can, taking care of ourselves when we can, and knowing not to let the former overwhelm us into forgetting the latter. Those two different types of work are two rivers flowing into the same body of water, for me. I don’t know how to write healthy and productive poems if I’m only doing one side of the work.”
Then, there’s this excerpt from a Rilke letter that I happened to reread today, and which serves as another tenet in how I approach the writing life. It’s advice I find myself echoing continuously (in a much more improvised fashion):
“Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that afterward summer may not come. It does come. But it comes only to those who are patient, who are there as if eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly silent and vast. I learn it every day of my life, learn it with pain I am grateful for: patience is everything!”
I dearly hope you take these perspectives to heart this week, or maybe even for the rest of the season.
Below, a miscellany of poems. I started with Lucille Clifton’s wonderful “flowers” and followed the thread of that love (our own
is included here).xM
Reminder:
✨ If you’re interested in CWC, join the waitlist. You will then receive an email inviting you to sign up between April 30 - May 5. The community will close after May 5 (and re-open June 1). ✨
What’s happening inside CWC in May?
I’m leading a live group replay of a course on re-imagining the process of revision
A 2-hr session on epistolary poetry with Declan Ryan (so good; I’ve sat in on this three times and learned so much each time!)
A conversation on poetry and PR with Milkweed publicist, Morgan LaRocca
2x Office Hours with me (come chat, ask me questions, or update me on your project)
A 2-hr mini-workshop
A meet-and-greet with other members
Favorite words from this group:
Hope’s secret:
It doesn’t know
the destination
😍😍😍
An exceptionally resonant group of poems this week—all by women, I notice. Thank you, Maya!