Poetry and Practice: A Presentation by Easthampton’s Poet Laureate Carolyn A. Cushing

Tuesday, February 27, 6:00 – 7:00pm

One day last February Carolyn woke up with these words in her head: What if I listened to the landscape and wrote what I heard? 

So she did. She pulled on her boots, gathered a 5 x 7 notebook and a pen, and set off on her usual Easthampton walk: past the library, cutting through the football field, over the bike path, by the factory, and into the cemetery by the pond. Nothing usual happened but she listened and looked and wrote as she walked. Her perception widened. The everyday happenings of our small city became extraordinary in their aliveness and in their reflection of our changing climate. 

Carolyn will read poems written on these walks and talk about her inspirations and creative practice at the Easthampton Public Library, 9 Park St. 

This presentation will inaugurate a series of Walking and Writing sessions with Carolyn on Saturday mornings in March leaving from the library at 8:30am and convening back there at 9:30 am to share what the landscape said to us. 

RSVP via FB event so we can plan for space and you can get weather alerts.

 

Walking and Writing Sessions with Carolyn Cushing, Easthampton’s Poet Laureate 

Three Saturdays, March 2nd, 9th, and 23rd, 8:30am meet outside the library to begin walk, 9:30am reconvene inside the library.

Meet on the steps of the Easthampton Public Library (9 Park St.) at 8:30am. A map of the “official route” will be provided that you may follow or adapt to your own needs and interests. Our time of walking and writing is followed by a library meet up with this structure:

• 9:30-9:45 am: Chat about how the writing and walking went
• At 9:45am: Anyone who wants to read from their notebook for up to 3 minutes may
• Closing: A go around where people are invited to voice an intention about further developing or sharing their writing from the walk

All of these activities are optional. People who have walked at other points in the week are welcome to join for the sharing. 

This event is weather dependent. If it is too wet for our notebooks (i.e. steady rain or snow) we will not go. If it is too icy to walk we will not go. 

RSVP via FB event so you can get weather alerts.

If you’d like to be informed of future events sign up for my poetry list on this page.