"Poetry and You"
A Zoom Seminar with Rebecca Kaiser Gibson ’68, (pictured above)
REBECCA OFFERS THIS INVITATION TO FELLOW OBIES:
YOU know Much More than you may think you do, about Poetry!
Poetry seems, to many, exclusive, opaque and out of range. But in my experience conducting poetry writing classes and leading poetry reading workshops, people’s own actual observations and responses, if trusted, and explored, can lead to valid and personally valuable experiences with poems.
Some lines or words or absence of words register immediately even when we don’t verbalize what we’ve noticed. Sometimes taking time opens awareness we’ve avoided in our haste to “get it.” Understanding that the “it” we need to “get” is the relationship we form with the poem. Our own.
I’ll read some poems from my forthcoming book, Girl as Birch (pre-order here). Then we can notice what we notice, wonder about what we wonder about – and let’s hope – see that whatever one happens to focus on, may be a way “in” to a poem.
ABOUT THE PRESENTER:
Rebecca Kaiser Gibson ’68 taught poetry writing at Tufts University for 23 years. She’s received fellowships from MacDowell, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Vermont Studio Center, and Virginia Center for Creative Arts, and was a Fulbright Scholar teaching poetry in India. Rebecca founded The Loom, Poetry in Harrisville, a poetry reading series. Her poetry collections are Girl as Birch, (2022), and Opinel (2015) from Bauhan Publishing. Her poems appear in Agni; Barrow Street, (forthcoming); Field; Green Mountains Review; Greensboro Review; Interim, (forthcoming 2022); Harvard Review; Massachusetts Review; Ocean State Review; Passengers; Salamander; Slate; Tupelo Quarterly; and VerseDaily, among others. Rebecca was an English major at Oberlin, and earned master’s degrees from Columbia Teachers College, Pittsburgh University, and Boston University. www.rebeccakaisergibson.com.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Contact Clyde Owan ’79 at: clydeobie@verizon.net.
