Tuning to the Relational*

Writing practice can be a practice of tuning—tuning in, tuning to—which involves listening, not just to our words or thoughts, but to what our words and thoughts are resonating with. One of the resounding concerns of our time is the dangerous imbalance of our humanity with planetary life. How can poetry—and how can we, through poetry—actively respond to this imbalance? One might write poetry that is topically inclusive of other life forms and natural systems, yes, but how can a poem’s form and language respond with an ecological tuning, which is to say, a tuning to the relational? What does it mean for a poem’s form and language to practice relational awareness? In this workshop, we will consider how our poetics can tune in, become tuned by, and listen—beyond the human intellect, to the beyond-human world, within which we are inextricably involved, often beyond our knowing. Each day we will engage in experiments in this tuning, while also reading poets who are practicing this in varying ways. Each meeting will involve writing experiments, discussion around readings, and sharing of one another’s fresh writing experiments as they are in process.

*Please note that there will be a well-trained, small, quiet, hypoallergenic service dog present in this workshop. If you have any questions or concerns, please write to Jennifer here, and she can provide you with any further information you may need.

Jennifer Elise Foerster is the author of three books of poetry, most recently, The Maybe Bird, and served as the Associate Editor of When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry. She is the recipient of a NEA Creative Writing Fellowship, was a Wallace Stegner Fellow, and holds a PhD in Literary Arts from the University of Denver. Foerster currently teaches at the Rainier Writing Workshop, Institute of American Indian Arts, and as visiting faculty at the Michener Center at UT Austin. A Mvskoke citizen, she lives in San Francisco.