For the next four days I'll be at Tassajara Zen Center in the Carmel Valley. There's a poetry workshop in progress, but my domestic partner and I will be doing "our own thing" (without computer/cell phone access), which will consist of sitting in water, sitting in sun (hopefully), reading, writing, and the normal (depending upon the range of your bell curve) things romantic partners do on vacation in a secluded, wilderness retreat environment.
There are no electrical outlets in our rooms, so I will either have to write with pen/paper, or pay $10/night to have my computer charged up in the office. In case that system fails, I printed out lots of beginnings of poems to flesh out, as well as some completed drafts to edit. I also brought books by favorite poets/authors to prime the pump: Michael Waters, Alicia Ostriker, Michael Ryan, Kim Addonizio, Dorianne Laux, Yusef Komunyakaa, Dawn McGuire--the latter, a new addition to the pantheon.
Mainly, I brought a new perspective, fueled by a fresh environment, 4 days of no responsibilities except to let my imagination rule--
I'll let you know how it went...
Monday, July 16, 2012
Tassajara Writing Retreat
was born in the Midwest, grew up in New Mexico, and has lived in the San Francisco bay area for two decades. Terry's work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New Poets 2012, Crab Orchard Review, Green Mountains Review, Great River Review, New Millennium Writings, and The Comstock Review. His work has garnered seven Pushcart Prize nominations. He is the winner of the 2014 Crab Orchard Review Special Issue Feature Award in Poetry. His chapbook, Altar Call, was a winner in the the 2013 San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival, and appears in the Anthology, Diesel. His chapbook, If They Have Ears to Hear, won the 2012 Copperdome Poetry Chapbook Contest, and is available from Southeast Missouri State University Press. His full-length poetry collections are In This Room (CW Books, 2016) and Dharma Rain (Saint Julian Press, 2017). Terry is a 2008 poetry MFA graduate of New England College. When he is not writing he is teaching as a regular speaker in the Dominican University Low-Residency MFA Program and as a free-lance writing coach. For more information about Terry and his work see www.terrylucas.com.
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
The Healing Art of Writing
There's a conference going on right now (July 8-14) at Dominican University is San Rafael, CA, that if you're anywhere near, you must attend the events open to the public. The Healing Art of Writing--building bridges between patients and caregivers through the written word is sponsored by Dominican University of California, The Foundation for the Humanities in Medicine and Perspectives in Medical Humanities, UCSF.
Here is the remaining schedule open to the public (A token $10 contribution is requested at the refreshment table for guests).
EVENTS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Afternoon Talks in The Creekside Room
Tuesday, July 10 (3-5pm) The Creekside
David Watts, MD: "Writing Two Sides of Consciousness"
Nina Schuyler, JD, MFA: "Creating Dynamic Characters"
Thursday July 12 (3-5pm) The Creekside
Dawn McGuire, MD: "Eat, Sleep, Neurology"
Marilyn Krysl, MFA: "Sacred and Profane: The Sestina as Rite"
Friday, July 13 (2-4pm) The Creekside
Julianna Waters: Heart and Hammer performs "Medicine Song"
John Fox, CPT: "The Precious Word Within: The Potential for Poetry to Heal the Heart"
EVENING READINGS and Documentary Screening
Mon, Tues, Thurs, 7-8 pm; Wed 7-9 pm in The Creekside Room
Faculty members will read from their own work, highlighting poems and stories that reflect the conference theme. On Wednesday night participants are invited to a premier screening of the documentary The Time We Have: The Caitlin Dolaghan Story, about a young woman's battle against osteo-sarcoma and how poetry writing carried her through the last year of her life.
Tuesday: John Fox, Molly Giles, and Alicia Ostriker
Wednesday: Documentary Screening of The Time We Have
Thursday: Dawn McGuire and Joan Baranow
....................................................................................
Yesterday I attended Alicia Ostriker's talk entitled "Eros and Metaphor, or, Why Metaphor Isn't Just a Band-Aid." Terrific stuff! Come to find out, metaphor is a whole lot more than we thought: "Metaphor," according to Ostriker (and she should know, being a narrative-lyrical poet for half a century now), "is a sign of love--[it's] what language uses to show that the world is full of connections." After a delightful exegesis of how metaphor accomplishes the act of finding "intuitive similarity in dissimilars," Ostriker delved into how the process of discovering the right metaphors works for her in her poetry. She then read two poems from her "Masectomy Series" that illustrate the connections already inherent in her body and the larger world. Tremendously informative, but even more inspirational!
I also stayed for Molly Giles' talk on endings--a delightful romp through well-known and lesser-known endings of short stories and novels of our time. Afterwards, I told her that even though I was a poet, she had motivated me to go write some fiction--which pleased her very much. I can't wait to hear her read her own work tomorrow night--along with Alicia's world-class poetry.
If you have plans that conflict with these talks and readings--cancel them! The topic is too important, and the writers presenting are too exceptional to miss them. Imagine how long you're going to be dead, and then live this week to its fullest by joining me at all of the remaining events open to the public during this fantastic writer's conference.
Oh yes--don't forget to hear Joan Baranow on Thursday night. I had the pleasure of reading with her a couple of weeks ago--I had not known her or her work prior. She is a top-notch poet who happens to be head of the English Dept. at Domincan. She's also the wife of David Watts, with whom she has produced Healing Words, the stories of patients whose lives have been dramatically changed as a result of Dr. John Graham-Ple and poetry therapist John Fox's incorporation of poetry into their recovery process.
I'm so sorry I didn't post about this conference sooner--but it's not too late to catch most of it. See you there!
Here is the remaining schedule open to the public (A token $10 contribution is requested at the refreshment table for guests).
EVENTS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Afternoon Talks in The Creekside Room
Tuesday, July 10 (3-5pm) The Creekside
David Watts, MD: "Writing Two Sides of Consciousness"
Nina Schuyler, JD, MFA: "Creating Dynamic Characters"
Thursday July 12 (3-5pm) The Creekside
Dawn McGuire, MD: "Eat, Sleep, Neurology"
Marilyn Krysl, MFA: "Sacred and Profane: The Sestina as Rite"
Friday, July 13 (2-4pm) The Creekside
Julianna Waters: Heart and Hammer performs "Medicine Song"
John Fox, CPT: "The Precious Word Within: The Potential for Poetry to Heal the Heart"
EVENING READINGS and Documentary Screening
Mon, Tues, Thurs, 7-8 pm; Wed 7-9 pm in The Creekside Room
Faculty members will read from their own work, highlighting poems and stories that reflect the conference theme. On Wednesday night participants are invited to a premier screening of the documentary The Time We Have: The Caitlin Dolaghan Story, about a young woman's battle against osteo-sarcoma and how poetry writing carried her through the last year of her life.
Tuesday: John Fox, Molly Giles, and Alicia Ostriker
Wednesday: Documentary Screening of The Time We Have
Thursday: Dawn McGuire and Joan Baranow
....................................................................................
Yesterday I attended Alicia Ostriker's talk entitled "Eros and Metaphor, or, Why Metaphor Isn't Just a Band-Aid." Terrific stuff! Come to find out, metaphor is a whole lot more than we thought: "Metaphor," according to Ostriker (and she should know, being a narrative-lyrical poet for half a century now), "is a sign of love--[it's] what language uses to show that the world is full of connections." After a delightful exegesis of how metaphor accomplishes the act of finding "intuitive similarity in dissimilars," Ostriker delved into how the process of discovering the right metaphors works for her in her poetry. She then read two poems from her "Masectomy Series" that illustrate the connections already inherent in her body and the larger world. Tremendously informative, but even more inspirational!
I also stayed for Molly Giles' talk on endings--a delightful romp through well-known and lesser-known endings of short stories and novels of our time. Afterwards, I told her that even though I was a poet, she had motivated me to go write some fiction--which pleased her very much. I can't wait to hear her read her own work tomorrow night--along with Alicia's world-class poetry.
If you have plans that conflict with these talks and readings--cancel them! The topic is too important, and the writers presenting are too exceptional to miss them. Imagine how long you're going to be dead, and then live this week to its fullest by joining me at all of the remaining events open to the public during this fantastic writer's conference.
Oh yes--don't forget to hear Joan Baranow on Thursday night. I had the pleasure of reading with her a couple of weeks ago--I had not known her or her work prior. She is a top-notch poet who happens to be head of the English Dept. at Domincan. She's also the wife of David Watts, with whom she has produced Healing Words, the stories of patients whose lives have been dramatically changed as a result of Dr. John Graham-Ple and poetry therapist John Fox's incorporation of poetry into their recovery process.
I'm so sorry I didn't post about this conference sooner--but it's not too late to catch most of it. See you there!
was born in the Midwest, grew up in New Mexico, and has lived in the San Francisco bay area for two decades. Terry's work has appeared in numerous literary journals, including Alaska Quarterly Review, Best New Poets 2012, Crab Orchard Review, Green Mountains Review, Great River Review, New Millennium Writings, and The Comstock Review. His work has garnered seven Pushcart Prize nominations. He is the winner of the 2014 Crab Orchard Review Special Issue Feature Award in Poetry. His chapbook, Altar Call, was a winner in the the 2013 San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival, and appears in the Anthology, Diesel. His chapbook, If They Have Ears to Hear, won the 2012 Copperdome Poetry Chapbook Contest, and is available from Southeast Missouri State University Press. His full-length poetry collections are In This Room (CW Books, 2016) and Dharma Rain (Saint Julian Press, 2017). Terry is a 2008 poetry MFA graduate of New England College. When he is not writing he is teaching as a regular speaker in the Dominican University Low-Residency MFA Program and as a free-lance writing coach. For more information about Terry and his work see www.terrylucas.com.
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