Picture This: Poems from Personal Images, with Rosemary Moeller (Four Tuesdays)

Get comfortable writing poetry in this easy and fun and totally-not-intimidating 4-part class with writer Rosemary Moeller. For each session you’re asked to bring a photo or picture, hard copy or online. We’ll discuss the images brought to class, then write poems about them, then share what we have written (if you choose), then revise, rewrite, then share again, then hold onto with satisfaction, maybe even publish.

All levels welcome, whether you are at the very beginning or somewhere on the journey. We will all practice positive poetic patience (I don’t know what this is but I’ll be trying to achieve it).

In addition to the assignment to bring personal visual prompts, I’ll be asking everyone to find some time to read poetry during the weeks. Books will be provided at no cost.

Images to bring to class:

Class 1. An animal to which you have a connection, pet or species bond, physically shared space or half a world away. We’ll discuss the ways we relate to other animals, what to say to them, what they say to us, what we hope to see happen in our world together.

Class 2. A place you’ve been maybe only once, maybe numerous times, that holds meaning for you. How do we connect to spaces that linger in our memory, or are refreshed daily? What is important about where we are living? Is preservation or development important? How will climate change affect your location?

Class 3. Bring a picture of a friend or relative at a specified age and time of their life. We’ll work on profiling the person or including them in a mental landscape, talking to them, listening to them, appreciating them.

Class 4. A picture from a given day: year, season, time of day, weather/temperature. How common or special the day is is up to you: annual ritual, unique moment, indoors or outdoors.

Rosemary Moeller has traveled to all seven continents, but Antarctica provided the most unexpected pleasures. She’s been a Peace Corps volunteer; Fulbright Scholar; a teacher at the university, middle school, high school, and elementary levels; writer; and farmer. She’s also the author of the poetry chapbooks Midnight Picnic in the Fields, The Lift of Wind Across Wings, and Long-Term Mates Migrate Great Distances. She writes to connect to others through images and ideas.