At Align Your Story Writing School, we bring traditional literary and creative writing studies together with mindfulness, embodied practices, and social and environmental engagement. Join a community of over 25,000 other mindful writers. Get the tools and community to write your best work.
This is amazing...wildness and wonder, even now...
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Dear Reader, I hope this finds you well! Many of my students and clients ask me: how do I wake up my writing? My answer: Pay attention. Many then follow up: But how do I pay attention? How do I cultivate my ability to pay attention? My answer: One of the best ways is to study and practice poetry. The poet Mary Oliver once wrote: “Ten times a day something happens to me like this – some strengthening throb of amazement – some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.” I find that the attention, the "attentiveness," that poetry teaches us can bring us back to the "throb of amazement" that Oliver describes. I'm excited to offer a Free Poetry Masterclass so I can share some of the wildness and wonder that poetry has to offer. Join me next week; I’d love to see you there!
At this time in our lives when there is so much happening in the world and so much at stake in our elections - there's an important presidential debate tonight for those of us in the U.S. - it can be easy to get bogged down, distracted, and overwhelmed. It can be easy to lose that sense of amazement. But it's precisely because this is such an overwhelming time that we must proactively put boundaries around our time and attention for the things we need and want to do in our lives. For example, I schedule time in my calendar each week for my political activism work - I get together regularly with friends and write letters to get out the vote. I also schedule time in my calendar each week for my creative practice and writing projects - and when I'm writing, even if it's for only 15 minutes, I'm not doing anything else; I'm paying attention to my body, to my spirit, to the words on the page, but I'm not checking my email or my phone. I also put boundaries of time and attention around so many other things in my life - my meditation practice, spending time in nature, spending time with family and friends, etc. So I invite you to join my upcoming Free Poetry Masterclass, to set aside this time in your calendar for yourself and your creative life. Even with everything else going on in our lives and the world, let's gather and immerse ourselves in poetry. To clarify: turning to poetry in this way does not mean that poetry is a turning away from difficult experiences. Rather, poetry can give us tools and perspective to engage more fully with what is around us, in all its shades. And it can teach us to pay greater attention to what is on the page so that our writing, too, becomes more alive. The Free Poetry Masterclass is for poets of any level of experience (from complete beginner to experienced professionals) who want to explore some of the ways to enliven your writing life. It’s also for prose writers who want new tools. :) In the live masterclass, we’ll be exploring:
It will also include:
As I said, I’d love to see you at the live class. Even if you have a lot on your plate, do join us; in just 60-90 minutes (depending on the number of questions I get), you'll feel more energized and leave with new tools for writing and living. I’ll be offering the class at three different times:
Sign up for whatever time best suits your schedule. If you can't make any of those times, there will be a recording available for those who sign up (sign up for Friday's class, Sept. 20th, if you only want the recording), but I encourage you to come on live if you can! There will be some special, exciting opportunities available only to those who join live :)
Reach out with any questions, and I’ll hope to see you. And please invite friends, family, writing groups, healing circles, and all other creative souls you know who might like to join us. This is even more fun with friends. PS: The short version of this email: join me for a completely free poetry masterclass next week! Sign up for the time that works best for you here. |
Hi! I'm Nadia Colburn—writer, teacher, yogi, activist
At Align Your Story Writing School, we bring traditional literary and creative writing studies together with mindfulness, embodied practices, and social and environmental engagement. Join a community of over 25,000 other mindful writers. Get the tools and community to write your best work.
Dear Reader, There's still time to join my free poetry masterclass—the first time I'm offering it is tomorrow! This free class is for: Poets of any level who want to refine their craft. Prose writers who want to hone their language. Anyone interested in the art of attention and poetry as a sacred practice. In class, you'll learn: The three essential techniques poets use (applicable to every genre); and also... How to pay finer attention as a writer and person; How to communicate the unsaid,...
Dear Reader, It's a beautiful, warm day here in New England. It almost feels like summer again, but the leaves are starting to change, and the days are getting shorter. As we enter this new season, which calls for more subtle forms of attention, poetry can be a companion. I hope you'll join me next week live online for a completely Free Masterclass: The Poetry of Attention. I'm offering the class three times next week; sign up for the time that works best for you. The Poetry of Attention:...
Dear Reader, I hope you're well! I'm spending these last few days of summer in Maine with my husband, Eric, and in this precious pause before the busyness of the fall begins, I've been thinking a lot about silence. One of my teachers, the Buddhist monk and activist, Thich Nhat Hanh, writes: If you don't have silence in yourself, you cannot hear the call of life. Your heart is calling you, but you don't hear. You don't have time to listen to your heart. So many of us don't have the silence and...