Thanks to the Massachusetts Poetry Festival for sponsoring our reading of Alzheimer’s Poems.
I read with some amazing poets: Gail Thomas, Christine Jones and Eric Hyatt. It was a great experience!
I’ll be blogging on Thursdays. Follow me here.
I have the pleasure of reading with Eric Hyett, as well as Gail Thomas, and Christine Jonesat this workshop called “Now As Mother: In the Presence of Loved Ones With Alzheimer’s” at 11:30 am May 6 at the 2023 Massachusetts Poetry Festival.
According to the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and it’s estimated that over six million Americans struggle with dementia as a result. To be in the presence of someone with Alzheimer’s is a lesson in appreciating the very present moment because both the past and future are unattainable to those individuals inflicted. As caregivers, we try to hold this space. As poets, we turn to language to help undertand and accept. In this group reading, followed by a Q&A, we’ll read our poetry and discuss our own experiences caring for a loved with Alzheimer’s disease.
Come and join us in Salem, Massachusetts at 11:30 am on Saturday, May 6. https://masspoetryfest2023.sched.com/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=admins&utm_campaign=global-password_reset-A&utm_content=header-link
Eric is a wonderful poet and translator. Here is his profile: Eric Hyett is a poet and Japanese translator from Brookline, Massachusetts. His first book of poetry, “Aporia,” was published in 2022 (Lily Poetry Review Books). With Spencer Thurlow, Eric co-translated “Sonic Peace,” by contemporary Japanese female poet Kiriu Minashita, (Phoneme Media, 2017) which was shortlisted for the 2018 National Translation Award. Eric and Spencer’s award-winning translation of “Is It Poetry” by Toshiko Hirata is forthcoming from Deep Vellum Publishing in August, 2023. Eric’s poems, essays and translations are part of the dialogue in Granta, The Georgia Review, Lily Poetry Review, The Hudson Review, World Literature Today and Modern
I have the pleasure of reading with Eric Heatt, as well as Gail Thomas, and Christine Jonesat this workshop called “Now As Mother: In the Presence of Loved Ones With Alzheimer’s” at 11:30 am at the 2023 Massachusetts Poetry Festival.
According to the National Institute on Aging, Alzheimer’s is a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills, and it’s estimated that over six million Americans struggle with dementia as a result. To be in the presence of someone with Alzheimer’s is a lesson in appreciating the very present moment because both the past and future are unattainable to those individuals inflicted. As caregivers, we try to hold this space. As poets, we turn to language to help undertand and accept. In this group reading, followed by a Q&A, we’ll read our poetry and discuss our own experiences caring for a loved with Alzheimer’s disease.
Come and join us in Salem, Massachusetts at 11:30 am on Saturday, May 6. https://masspoetryfest2023.sched.com/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=admins&utm_campaign=global-password_reset-A&utm_content=header-link
To vividly describing a place, person, or thing is to imagine it in your mind’s eye. If it exists you may prefer to look at it or a photograph. Either way, you’ll start with some scene before you without dividing it into objects or attaching any words to it. Just form an impression of the colors, textures, shapes, and feeling.
Most importantly, refrain from your impulse to name them. Just picture and observe.
Then, be careful to select the right words to convey the place. If the words that come to mind don’t seem adequate, look in a dictionary, ask around, or do some research. Be sure to keep searching until you have the closest match possible between observation and language. While it’s okay to stop short of perfection, since words and thought inevitably fail to capture perception, keep revising until you can’t think of any way to improve your description further.
Instead of allowing the meaning you want to express to decide the words, you can be seduced by alliteration, rhythm and other sonic features, or fail to escape from customary phrasing, and allow language itself to decide what it is you want to say. This is for description in fiction or nonfiction. Poetry, of course, calls out for those sonic features.
In this way your description will serve you well in your writing.
I will blog on Thursdays. Follow me here.
BOOK LAUNCH EVENT AND CELEBRATION
Jan. 11, 6:30 -7:45, Forbes Library, Northampton, MA
Tap into Your Midnight Mind with Dreams and Writing
Learn how to use the science and psychology of sleep, dreams, and mindfulness to supercharge your creativity, and wake up to your best life with Tzivia Gover, Author of Dreaming on the Page: Tap into Your Midnight Mind to Supercharge Your Writing
Join us for a book launch and author talk about how anyone can benefit from the Dreaming on the Page method whether you remember your dreams or not, and whether or not you consider yourself a writer. Bring a pen and prepare to be inspired!
“In Dreaming on the Page Tzivia Gover provides a powerful set of tools to unleash your creativity, enhance your writing, and inspire your life.” Naomi Epel, author of Writers Dreaming
“With a warm, sure hand, Tzivia Gover guides readers through her ‘Dreaming on the Page’ process, serving up engaging historical and personal anecdotes alongside concrete advice and helpful writing prompts and exercises. Accessible and unfailingly encouraging, Dreaming on the Page proves that dreaming and writing are for everyone—and that when you combine the two, the result can be truly magical.” Brooke Warner, Publisher of She Writes Press and author of Write On, Sisters!
Tzivia Gover is a certified dreamwork professional and the author of several books, including Dreaming on the Page, How to Sleep Tight Through the Night (with Lesléa Newman), and The Mindful Way to a Good Night’s Sleep, among others. Tzivia writes and dreams in western Massachusetts. Learn more at www.thirdhousemoon.com
For writers, reading is a way of life. We read early and often. We read, we write. We check our media contacts, read newspapers or magazines online or in hard copy, then read a text of something similar to what we are working on in our own writing. If we stop reading, it’s deprivation.
It’s a paradox that by emptying our lives of all that text and distraction, we are actually refreshing the wellspring. By absenting ourselves from all the media, we get in touch with our inner selves, which is where all the creativity comes from. By keeping the inflow to a minimum, the outflow improves. Our true thoughts and feelings will begin to penetrate and come out in new writing, running freely. I knew a playwright who would take off his shoes and socks and stand in a running stream with a paper and pencil to literally get his flow going.
If you find not reading difficult, and many writers do, here are some suggestions:
.listen to music that has no words
.sew
.repot plants
.cook a complicated, time-consuming recipe and then
.invite friends to dinner
.watercolor
.rearrange the kitchen
.exercise
.meditate
.dance
After a number of these activities, sit down and write again. Notice any differences in your feelings or content. Your writing may benefit.
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There is going to be an in-person reading of prose and poetry at Grand Hall, Workshop 13 Cultural Arts and Learning Center in Ware, Massachusetts on Sunday, October 23 at 2 pm. If you’re in the area, do drop in. It’s right down Route 9, which is glorious fall now. Grand Hall is at 13 Church St. , Ware.
See Workshop13.org for more details.
It has been awhile since I did an in-person reading, but if you are in Western Massachusetts on Sunday, October 23rd, I encourage you to come. The attached flyer has the details.
I’m happy to have a radio interview to talk about the Writers Read Reading at 2 pm on Sunday, October 23rd at Workshop 13, 13 Church St., Ware, Massachusetts.
Stephanie Shafran and I will be interviewed and reading poetry for Tommy Twilight’s Twilight Poetry Pub on WXOJ-FM, Valley Free Radio on Tuesday, October 11 at 8 pm (EDT.)
Listen in.
Eileen P. Kennedy Author 