Poetic Process: Towards a Non-Theory of Creativity
Willa Cather said that real artistic growth is an approach (and re-approach) towards “truth-telling.” But Dickinson equally affirms the idea that we must “tell all the Truth but tell it slant.” But why? And how? In this course we will consider the many uses of metaphor, image-making, so-called “free association,” and associative reading and writing. We’ll think together about the why’s and how’s of evoking—rather than stating—feelings and ideas in our work and in our readers. After discussion, we’ll devote ourselves to work-shopping your poems—please bring sufficient copies (8-10) of 2-3 of your own pieces—and be prepared to participate in a lively, generous, and careful review of one another’s works: all the truth, but slant! Let’s work hard to achieve this onerous and beautiful balancing act!
Saturday 3/21/2015, 12-4 p.m.
KATE KNAPP JOHNSON has been teaching poetry at Sarah Lawrence College since 1987 and has directed the Graduate Poetry Program there for 11 years. She is the author of three collections of poetry: When Orchids Were Wildflowers (Dragon Gate), This Perfect Life (Miami Univ.) and Wind Somewhere, And Shade (Miami). She has been the recipient of a NYFA and two GRADIVA awards for her work—most recently published in Ploughshares, The Sun, The Atlanta Review, and Lumina. She is also a graduate of the Westchester Institute for Training in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis with a specialty in Jungian Studies.
Register at https://writerscenter.org/courses/poetic-process-towards-a-non-theory-of-creativity
