Break from the trees—
dive beneath water’s surface,
her depths reveal us to ourselves.

Stay as long as you dare—
write with the pull of the current
in a place with other poets
and know, here is danger,
here is fun, and here is
not that serious.

Who will you discover
you are?

HOW TO WRITE POETRY CLASS

With Ash Wylder

WE UNLEASH OURSELVES IN CREATIVITY

How to Write Poetry is a creative writing course that combines the wisdom of neuroscience, body intuition, and skillful practice to teach poets and want-to-be poets how to write in rhythm with wellness.

How to Write Poetry can be done at your own pace from wherever you are in the world. The live classes are very fun and the energy and connection with other students is helpful in a world where we tend to write by ourselves. These classes are recorded and you are welcome to go through the materials at your own pace - you have access to all of the recordings and the community and resources for 6 months.

The writing practice we develop over this course is inspiring, exciting, and healing. Some students will go on to publish some of the poems written during this dive— others will write simply for the joy of writing.

The commitment is simple: write every day for 9 weeks. Write for 10 minutes or for an hour, but write. Use the tools in this course to learn how to hand the pen to your mythopoetic identity and reacquaint with your muse. Inside are ideas aplenty - join us.

Weathering Change

… Poetically

Live Interactive Classes take place on Zoom Wednesdays from 7:00-8am Pacific Standard Time to provide poetic insight and guidance for the week ahead. (Replays are provided in your Course Membership Portal, but it’s always most powerful to attend in person.)

Supportive tides of coursework and solitary exploration entice your muse back towards your writing desk and allow you to move at your own pace. This is not a “one-size-fits-all” course. The material is there as a suggestion and portal into your brilliance, use it as you see fit.

Course readings - Each week, all students and participants will be invited to share a particular poem or piece of artwork or sensation that is moving them. It will deepen our internal and external explorations of what makes poetry potent to us.

Structures, Tools, Techniques, and Feedback will deepen your exploration into your writing practice. We’ll use our spare moments, scrap notes, and memories to forge and form nuanced metaphor and meaning that will be deeply healing for us.

Some Details

  • These classes are not “lecture” based. While there will be a short teaching session, much of that time will be spent in practical practice of the skills we are focused on that week.

  • Ash, as an instructor, loves to bring people’s bodies into the work of writing. Embodiment practices, guided meditations, and other activities will join the prompts and teachings during the course to create an immersive and trauma-informed curriculum backed by neuroscience.

  • CLASS SIZE: 8 Students. Ash knows that lots of people can bring too much energy and distract highly sensitive people from the heart of the matter, so she keeps the class size small. If enough people are interested after the class is full, she will offer a second course.

  • Office Hours (for questions) and Study Halls (quiet cowriting) are available throughout the course.

To hear about the next class, please sign up for the Driftwood Brine newsletter below.

Commitments to writing are like alchemy - what will come out is a mystery indeed. Normally, we commit to writing in quiet solitary places in the dark. What will happen in a cauldron of deep intuitive community where your mythopoetic identity is given reign to roam wild?

How to Write Poetry SYLLABUS

Wk 1: ​ ​GETTING STARTED-
Where to find subject matter for a poem. The task of lyric poetry.

Wk 2: ​LISTENING-
The sounds, spaces, and sonics of words.

Wk 3: ​REWORKING-
Introducing the tactics of drafting and revisiting poems.

Wk 4: ​HELP-
Finding your editing partner (if you desire). How to give and receive feedback.

Wk 5: ​GETTING LOST-
line to line to word to word.

Wk 6:​ ​STRUCTURE-
Dear villanelle, sonnet, haiku, who are you?

Wk 7: ​THE SWEETNESS-
Finding places for stillness and joy in words.

Wk 8: ​WORKSHOP & TOOLS-
Workshopping the "ocean" poems

Wk 9: ​CELEBRATION & NEXT STEPS-
Keeping your writing practice in your life, poetry follow-through, and relationships.

*The commitment is 10-15 minutes of writing a day + the weekly 90-minute call. If you can't make it live, don't worry! Watch the replay at your convenience.

Brianna Atilla

“My energy has shifted. I work as an accountant, but I feel as a poet.”

Aaron Shori

“(Ash) understands how to transmute pain/broken-ness into precious resources for creative expression and strength.”

This Poetry class is for ALL LEVELS

  • the thought of an academic, stuffy, and dusty poetry course with a lot of rules to follow sends your muse to the stacks with a flask.

  • you feel better when you’re creating, making, and exploring your creative practice consistently

  • you enjoy prompts, assignments, and invitations that get you out of your head and into your heart.

  • you truly love the unraveling and growing that comes from investing in your intuitive guidance system

  • you crave to go to places you would never go to on your own

This is for you if:

  • you feel like if you’re going to be surrounded by anyone, you want to be surrounded by other highly sensitive people that totally understand when you say “I need to take a break” and support you in that decision.

  • You believe that the right approach to growth for you is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but it a creative discovery process between you, your instructor, and the work at hand.

  • you long to be seen in your mess and not told to “clean it up” sell something, use this space to describe it in detail and tell us why we should make a purchase. Tap into your creativity. You’ve got this.

MEET THE INSTRUCTOR

Ash Wylder has been writing and publishing her work since 2010. She integrates the cross sections of a deep passion for neuroscience, skill development, and mind-body connection into all of her coursework. She is a life-long lover of language with a run-amok imagination and pens as often as inspiration hits. She is deeply familiar with the creative practice of making something that is reader-ready and writing for the joy of it. No matter where your blocks come up, she can teach you, step-by-step, how to unlock them in trauma-sensitive and neuroscience-backed ways. She has performed, published, and taught for 7+ years.

Join us for an unforgettable journey through metaphor and the senses as the seasons change, the nights grow deep, and the rain returns to the Pacific Northwest.

This special course is for poets, want to be poets, and brave individuals who want to listen to themselves and the world with an ear to the water.

Take 9 weeks or 14 (or more) to move through this material. Prepare for what comes by getting present with what is now. Pay attention to your life and slow down your heart rate— for at least the time you set aside to write, you can rest.
Invite your muse back in, hand the pen to your mythopoetic identity, and watch the world you live in transform.

-Ash