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In Mary Oliver's Footsteps: Finding Poetry in the Pause
by Writing Workshops Staff
A day ago
"Wild Geese" was not supposed to be "Wild Geese." Mary Oliver wrote the poem that has, in Lauren Davis's words, "literally saved lives" while explaining something mechanical about poetry to a student. The lesson Davis carries forward into her Writing Mary Oliver 8-Week Online Poetry Class is this: sometimes the best way to write a poem is to forget you are trying to write one at all. "I think there's wisdom in going at the page sideways," she explains.
Over eight weeks at WritingWorkshops.com, the official education partner of Electric Literature, Davis invites poets into what she calls an "alchemic learning process": concentrated immersion in a single author. Students will read Oliver's poetry alongside her two craft books, generate twenty-one new poems through guided prompts, and receive close instructor feedback on six pieces. Beyond the page, Davis hopes the class will reset the rhythm of attention itself. Her aim, in her own words: to help students "slow down, so that something at the corner of their vision that has been asking for attention can finally be seen."
Whether you are coming to Oliver for the first time or returning to "the soft animal of your body" for the hundredth, Davis offers something rare in a literary culture obsessed with output: a workshop that treats reverence as a craft.
Here is our interview with Lauren:
Writing Workshops: What part of your own creative journey compelled you to build an entire eight-week course around Mary Oliver’s poetic legacy, and what do you personally hope to discover by revisiting her work with your students?
Laruen Davis: One of the most instructive things I've found for myself, as a writer, is to spend concentrated time with one author. I read about their life, and I also read everything they've written that I can get my hands on. There's a sort of alchemic learning process that occurs when I concentrate in this way. I am hoping to create a similar approach for my students. And who better to get to know than Mary Oliver?
WW: Mary Oliver is often praised for her reverential attention to the natural world. Can you share a moment from your own life where nature profoundly impacted your writing—and how that experience might shape how you guide students through Oliver’s poems?
LD: I grew up in the southeast of the United States. Flat land. Lots of pine tree forests. Gorgeous, unique landscapes, but there is little in the southeast that is especially large. The first time I drove out to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State and saw the trees that grow along the highway—these mammoth, ancient creatures—I felt not only awe but honestly a bit of fear. I was humbled by them. That feeling of awe was something I wanted to bring into my writing, but it took a few false starts. I did not give up, though. And I think that's something we can learn from Oliver's work. She repeatedly strived for a felt sense, and she would come at it from multiple angles in multiple books. I think students can learn from her how to return again and again to what is asking in them to be written.
WW: Oliver’s work explores the limits of language and the human capacity for wonder. How do you plan to encourage your students to push the boundaries of their own language, especially as they generate 21 new poems over the course of eight weeks?
LD: Oliver leaned towards structure, form, and discipline. I see the wisdom in it, and I see how it worked for her. And while some students may not be able to reproduce her discipline in their daily lives long-term, I encourage them to explore it in our time together. I also encourage a different practice each week meant to help them connect or reconnect with their outer and inner word.
WW: In your own poetry collections and chapbooks, you often delve into themes of spirituality, belonging, and transformation. In what ways does Mary Oliver’s sense of awe and interconnectedness echo (or contrast) your personal poetic vision, and how do you bridge that gap as an instructor?
LD: Oliver's emotional range is much larger than mine. I think it's hard to write a poem about hope or wonderment and not have the poem veer into cliché or even take on a patronizing tone. But that simply means those poems need to be attempted, again and again, until we get it right. Oliver made a lot of things look easy. She just did. It's honestly a little maddening. Thankfully, in addition to her poetry books, she left us two craft books, which we read parts of together in the workshop.
WW: What’s one piece of Mary Oliver’s writing advice or one habit from her creative life that you believe could revolutionize a student’s poetry practice, even if it seems deceptively simple at first glance?
LD: I share the story of how "Wild Geese" came to be, a poem that has literally saved lives. The poem came when she was explaining something mechanical about poetry to a student. I think there's wisdom in going at the page sideways. Approaching the page the same way day after day may bring results, but if we want to go deeper, it's often fruitful to forget we are trying to say anything and instead play with form, line, and prompts. Or if we are more inclined towards form, taking a looser approach while still letting go of the need to control what we are trying to say.
WW: After the eight weeks end and the newly crafted poems have been workshopped, how do you envision your students carrying Mary Oliver’s influence forward in their lives—both on the page and beyond it?
LD: My hope is that this workshop helps students slow down. Slow down in their writing, and slow down in their daily lives, so that something at the corner of their vision that has been asking for attention can finally be seen. I think Oliver's poetry is capable of inspiring a different pace to life.
Learn more and sign up for our Writing Mary Oliver 8-Week Online Poetry Class with Lauren Davis.
Lauren Davis is the author of the short story collection The Nothing (YesYes Books), the poetry collection Home Beneath the Church (Fernwood Press), the Eric Hoffer Grand Prize short-listed When I Drowned (Kelsay Books), and the chapbooks Each Wild Thing’s Consent (Poetry Wolf Press), The Missing Ones (Winter Texts), and Sivvy (Whittle Micro-Press). She holds an MFA from the Bennington College Writing Seminars. She is a former Editor in Residence at The Puritan’s Town Crier, and she is the winner of the Landing Zone Magazine’s Flash Fiction Contest. Her stories, essays, poetry, interviews, and reviews have appeared in numerous literary publications and anthologies, including Prairie Schooner, Spillway, Poet Lore, Ibbetson Street, Ninth Letter, and elsewhere.
