last week of poetry class
the magic of opening up to new mediums
For the past seven weeks I’ve immersed myself inside of an intimate and cozy community of writers who signed up for
‘s Lyric Threads Lab this Fall. Every Sunday we’ve come together to co-write, read each other’s work and exchange feedback. Today is our cohort’s final session.We’ve had space and time to explore what is surfacing for us between our weekly Zoom calls with generative writing prompts, a community email thread, and a reading list that's opened so many new doors for me (including work like this Pantoublock by Seth Leeper that shook me to my core). But my absolute favorite part is when we get to come together live.
Every week we take turns in the rotation of submitting work for group review and 30 minutes of feedback. Those thirty minutes feel luxurious, both on the giving and receiving side. It is such a privilege to crawl into someone else’s work like that — a different level of trust and intimacy that I have not experienced since sitting in critiques or studio visits at art school.
Despite the recent rhythm I’ve found again with writing my newsletter for the past six months, I was looking for a place to dive into the rawness around my partner’s month long hospitalization earlier this year. Living in a hospital was a surreal experience, and when we came home it was obvious how different our lives would be forever.
I could feel it at my edges. Lingering in my peripheries. And I knew I needed to find an outlet for it all to pour into. I needed a place to pull on the thread I couldn’t even unravel in therapy just yet. Lyric Thread Labs has been just that, and I am so grateful to KP as your guide and my fellow writers who have held me through this cathartic release. Making it feel safe enough to do so because they were holding up mirrors with their own vulnerability too.
This week I’m sharing my own take on a pantoublock — and it’s weirdddddd! A departure from the love poems and catalogue lists I’ve been writing for the past six weeks. I’m so excited to end on this note, to feel like rather than wrapping up with the final call today…I am truly just opening up an entirely new world of possibilities through the medium of poetry.
With Love,
Jenna
P.S. Thank you to everyone for being so supportive of me taking a break from the newsletter while I dedicated time to my poetry class! Next week we’ll be back to regularly scheduled programming with the Dear October end of the month audio workshop. Then, after that, we’ll get back into weekly Sunday self-love newsletters!
Is there a medium you’ve been wanting to explore for awhile? An idea for a potential outlet that has been tugging on your heart strings? What would it be like to follow that thread and see what wants to channel through that curiosity?
If a specific medium hasn’t been calling to you but you like the idea of shaking things up to see what needs to fall out try one of these ideas —
Buy a disposable camera and head into one of your favorite nature spots, stay there and explore until you’ve used every photo on the roll of film. Take note of what surfaces through this process as well as sitting with the images after you get them developed. Don’t have access to a disposable camera? Try the Lapse App for free!
Grab some markers and blank paper and fill the page in anyway you’d like so that no white can be seen. What came up for you as you colored? What feelings are present when you look at the finished drawing?
Want to get inspired by writing too? Listen to Ross Gay’s incredible catalogue poem and then write a list of all the contrasting parts of life you’re grateful for to see what holding the duality of hard and good feels like.
your pantoublock!!!!! is/was incredible. WOW