Are you looking for inspiration for you next poetry postcard?  Take a page from Robert Duncan, a devotee of Hilda “H.D.” Doolittle and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance. In Towards an Open Universe, Duncan weaves together myth, personal myth, biology, quantum physics and the cosmos together to create something new- and you can do the same. Reading the first two paragraphs of his essay, write a poem that mimics Duncan’s story but with your own details. Are you parents still alive? Interview them for details. You can even make something up.

As you create your own personal myth, consider what myths you are living in your life, and what myths you grew up with as a child. What are your emerging myths? And don’t worry if your myths don’t always tie together- as Walt Whitman said:  Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.

And if you are interested in finding out more about Robert Duncan, Hilda “H.D.” Doolittle, and the American Modernist movement, check out our upcoming workshop: Robert Duncan’s H.D. Book: The Roots of Modernism with Michael Boughn.

In this 5-week workshop you’ll read the H.D. Book with the man who edited it, Michael Boughn, and let Duncan lead you into an encounter with the marvelous as you follow his encounter with H.D. as into the depths of history, mind, and soul. Learn more here: https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/robert-duncans-hd-book-the-roots-of-modernism-with-michael-boughn/