Organic Poetry: Poem as
Soul-Building Experience
Poetry Workshop
Outline:
The
goal of the workshop is to explain the stance of various Organic poets, discuss
the holistic cosmology underpinning such stances, give examples of their work and
allow participants to experience the state of consciousness in which such verse
is composed. Through this a sense of community is created and the state in
which one is connected to something greater than one’s self is experienced,
creating a frame of reference for future practice.
I. Introductions
- name, expectations. Do you want to write? Listen? Get tips on performance?
II. Summary
of workshop:
a) - Discussion of evolving ORGANIC form in North American
poetry, focusing on Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Charles Olson,
Robert Duncan, Michael McClure, Allen Ginsberg, Diane di
Prima, Anne Waldman & George Bowering and others, interspersed with:
b) - A writing workshop using the First
Thought/Best Thought writing dictum of Allen Ginsberg and employing right
brain writing strategies of surrealists (exquisite corpse) and other exercises.
Audio selections from interviews Paul has done over the years will be a part of
the workshop. Poets discussed and writing exercises selected may happen by
random drawing.
Walt
Whitman began writing poems in the mid-19th century in
William
Carlos Williams composed spontaneously out of necessity, as he was a
general practice physician. He was the first to suggest the links to field
theory and said: “Most of my life has been lived in hell, a hell of repression
lit by flashes of inspiration when a poem such as this or that would appear.”
Charles
Olson made extensive use of the cosmology of Alfred North Whitehead, the
“Father of Organismic Thought.” Olson knew the
spontaneous composition process was one that was natural and led to a change in
the content created by the author. His essay Projective Verse is still the most
detailed example of Open Form and its strength. “Art does not seek to describe,
but enact.”
Robert
Duncan in correspondence with
Denise Levertov, called this stance toward poem-making
ORGANIC and said: The poet’s role is not to oppose evil, but to
imagine it. In articulating the
basic world-views underpinning Conventional, Free Verse and Organic poets, he
said the Organic poet understands: the
universe and man are members of a form. Freedom lies in the apprehension of
this underlying form, towards which invention and free thought in sciences alike work. All experience is formal – We feel things in so
far as we awake to the form. The form of the poem is the feeling (and where form fails, feeling fails.)
Diane
di Prima and Anne Waldman began to
investigate Buddhism and incorporate such wisdom into their work.
Michael
McClure created the most refined Projective Verse, incorporating his Zen
practice and hunger for liberation into his work. He has also created some of
the clearest extensions of Olson’s poetic theories.
George
Bowering and Robin Blaser were present when the nexus of this lineage
became centered in
There
may be works by other poets included, such as Gary Snyder, Wanda
Coleman, Eileen Myles, Jack Spicer, Victor Hernandez Cruz,
Ed Sanders and others.
It is my feeling that writing with this process allows for a deepening of one’s consciousness and aids the urge toward individuation though homeostasis. Many essays clarifying the examples of individuals in this lineage are linked at: http://www.globalvoicesradio.org/studyplan5.5.06.html
· "Paul
is an remarkable teacher. His knowledge extends beyond poetry and poets to
music, art. and culture in general. His enthusiasm and
energy can transform a group of strangers into something like a community in a
matter of minutes."
-- Pamela Alexander, Poet, Associate Professor,