Poetry as Necessity: seasonal pop-up workshop (Summer's Close 2026)
A quarterly pop-up workshop with Holly Wren Spaulding.
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at 4:00–5:30 pm Eastern on Zoom
If you've often arrived at the end of summer and felt it passed you by, or whatever happened during those sun baked days feels like a blur, this generative writing session will help you reclaim and affirm what actually happened, and how it felt.
Often we need a process to support us as we transition from one thing to the next, and this process is one that I've found both easy and joyful to return to as the heat waves subside and the leaves begin to turn.
The workshop will begin with a brief explanation of a form (Zuihitsu) that provides a space to remember and record. Then we'll write for the better part of an hour, using creative prompts and exercises designed to bring forth what is within you. The workshop will conclude with an opportunity to share and receive encouragement.
Zuihitsu (随筆), often translated as "following the brush," is a Japanese literary tradition of loosely linked fragments and observations that follows the mind's associative drift rather than a fixed structure or narrative. Together, we'll write our own "stray notes" (Makoto Ueda)— to record and reflect on the season we're closing, before we step into the one arriving.
No experience with the zuihitsu form required — just a willingness to notice what the last few months have brought you. You'll leave with a piece of writing that is both an archive of moments and a poem — and the felt sense of having honored the season through this simple ritual.
While a recording will be made and shared with all registered participants, you are encouraged to write with us during the interactive Live session, which always has a little extra magic.
*The intention is to offer these workshop on a more or less quarterly cadence. Stay tuned for future sessions in December, March, and June. As always, the best way to follow my work is via my newsletter, Ars Poetica.
$35.00 USD
