December 2023 Carol Brennan King

OK, I’m no spring chicken, but as I told someone a few days ago, I just love continuing to learn. That’s what drove me into Nadia Colburn’s online classroom four years ago to take her free poetry class. Oh My Word! I loved it, and I have taken nearly every class she has offered since then.

Some were free like that first one, so you can dip your toe into the water before you invest in an amazing opportunity to grow as a person, to try writing poetry maybe, and meet people from all over the world with the same desire. Nadia students come from Australia, Indonesia, Europe, South Africa, Great Britain, Canada, and the US via zoom.

So I took my first class and haven’t stopped since then. I do love most any writing, but of late, I am immersed in poetry.

However, as much as I love poetry, sometimes, I struggle with imitating a style used by a particular writer, like Emily Dickinson. After about 15 minutes of trying to write something after her model, I confess to being frustrated. Then it came to me what Nadia Colburn would say, “Don’t work at it so hard. Let flow what wants to flow.”

So I finished the piece I was working on and decided to go back to the 12 other poems Nadia gave us in this module, to read them more slowly with an open heart. To explore whether I could see Emily Dickinson at her desk, feel what she felt and write what she inspired. Then I did it. I sat at my desk, felt whatever came to me and wrote. Not great, but way better than I expected. I thank Nadia for that.

Nadia has a new book of poetry out now, I Say the Sky, and it’s available from Kentucky Press and Amazon. Can I encourage you to get this book as a Christmas gift for yourself? Because she just might take you out of the box of “I don’t write poetry. And I hate rhyming.”

Because you don’t have to work at rhyming. It’s not the ‘in’ thing now though some do it well. When you get ready to give it a shot, writing something. You only need fifteen minutes or so to be still. Nadia taught me to meditate before I write – to be still, to quiet my “monkey mind” she calls it. And see what comes.

AND, more important, don’t compare yourself with anyone. Just use your tools. Maybe yes to punctuation; maybe no. Maybe yes to long lines, maybe short lines work to put the emphasis where you want it. Maybe no capital letter; maybe only at the beginning of sentences. Maybe a little rhyming, maybe not. Just lay it out there on the paper in a way that shows the reader what you think, what you feel.

ABOUT Nadia’s latest book. First, just read her book slowly with a desire to learn, and you will. I felt like the first pages of this book were full of things for me to try as a writer. The second section spoke to the woman in me –  not only as a poet, but as a woman. My journey from childhood to the present, your journey from your childhood to the present. As a girl, a mother who lost a child, a writer or musician or whatever God put inside of you, through loss, to a plea: Teach me to pray, anywhere. and way more.

Nadia shared her heart, and I think you will relate to her work…maybe not all of it the first time through, but sometimes you will catch yourself saying, “Someone else felt like I did.”

Well, I have some poems to write, for me, and sometimes for you.

The Cloud Broad and Black  Carol Brennan King      Nov. 29. 2023

Morning, the sun announces

its arrival over the distant hill

I stand on my toes

embracing the April warmth

rare, that warmth.

I did not even see

the cloud, broad and black

following me

or was it following

him. I kissed him

always in the morning

but he was not there

in his little boy body

his choice –

so still he lay there

when I left, it seemed

he was not there

and some part of me

left with him

for the shell

he left behind

would not hear me

would not look at me

would not answer

my plea to just sit up

I never knew why –

who he was leaving

he should have said

I think it would not have

hurt so much

today