On Saturday, June 27, from 3 – 5pm, Cascadia 2050 will be hosting a workshop titled: I Want to Write a Poem (But Don’t Know How). Cost: free, suggested donation $25. Sign up here.

In my experience, in conversations with friends, family, and acquaintances, I have often been asked what seems to me a very simple question. “Well, how do I write a poem?” The snarky answer is, “Well, you get a pen and a paper and start writing.” While true, the sarcasm there is not helpful to get anyone actually writing, and what I want people to understand is that writing a poem really is not as mysterious and difficult as it’s cracked up to be. Writing a deeply energetic poem that gets remembered in history textbooks is, I would argue, a little more difficult, but really it is the result of practice and luck more than anything. So, in order to demystify this process, and, as the CPL and Cascadia 2050 missions say, “empower people to practice poetry…” we are hosting this workshop that will get into the first steps that can get any person writing poems they can be proud of. Brenda Hillman says that, “to be a poet you only need 3 readers, and one of them can be a tree.” And that is the energy we will be trying to capture and share at this workshop, which will hopefully be the first of many.

On a larger scale, a creative practice is a powerful personal antidote to the depressants of attention fracking, war-mongering, and climate crisis we are all exposed to right now. It can help build physical, emotional, and intellectual resilience. It can help build community. It can help build a culture that is based on humans, not corporations. And we Cascadia 2050ites want to share that with you! So if you, a friend, a family member, or an annoying coworker needs this kind of poetic energy in their life right now, please come, join us, and invite that person in your life!