dead poets society
an autumnal writing immersion for people who want to suck the marrow out of life.
CARPE DIEM, POET.
There is a moment in Dead Poets Society when the students are reminded that their lives will not last forever. This isn’t to be a threat, but an invitation to live.
To seize the day. To make your life extraordinary.
What if we actually said yes to the whispered invitation?
What if instead of standing on the sidelines analyzing our lives, we entered into them?
Made the thing. Told the truth. Fell in love. Changed our minds. Went somewhere new. Said out loud the scary sentence.
Let ourselves want what we want.
Collected images like treasures.
Made some glorious, messy mistakes.
And wrote it all down.
“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
-dead poets society
This autumn, we're joining the society.
We'll use somatic writing, poetry, embodiment and creative practice to get out of our heads and back into the messy material of our actual lives.
We'll practice noticing.
We'll collect images.
We'll write from sensation instead of explanation.
We'll stop naming the feeling and start describing what it does inside the body.
We'll follow the poem instead of forcing it to behave.
We'll kill our darlings to find the gold underneath.
We'll write the scary thing.
We'll ask what the poem wants to say.
And maybe most importantly—
we'll practice living in a way that gives us something worth writing about.
Because poetry isn't hiding somewhere far away.
The poems hang out where life is.
Let's go meet them there.
Poetry belongs to the living.
Not just in books.
Not just in English classrooms.
Not just to people who call themselves poets.
Poetry is happening in the wet leaves stuck to the sidewalk. In the person you shouldn't have fallen in love with. In the song blasting through the car with the windows down. In the terrible decision that made a great story. In the ache in your chest you haven't quite found language for yet.
The best poems hang out where life is.
And this autumn, we're going looking for them.
DEAD POETS SOCIETY is a writing immersion inspired by the beloved film, the poets who came before us, and the radical idea that creativity isn't separate from your life.
You have to live the poem in order to write the poem.
CARPE DIEM
Come write with us.
Come make your life your greatest source material.
Come tell the truth.
Here's what's included:
Somatic writing practices + guided creative exercises designed to move you out of overthinking and into sensation, imagery, truth and instinct.
Poetry + inspiration from writers including Thoreau, Whitman, Keats, Rilke and contemporary poets who remind us what language can do.
Writing portals exploring aliveness, beauty, risk, longing, uncertainty, attention and the courage to tell the truth.
And a room full of humans choosing to live—and write—a little more boldly.
No writing experience required.
You don't even have to call yourself a poet.
We will meet on Wednesday evenings at 6 pm central
September 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th
awww, shucks
