"BODY PARTS" Residential Poetry Course with Penelope Shuttle and Geraldine Green

BODY PARTS A Residential Poetry Course with Penelope Shuttle and Geraldine Green June 8^th- 12^th 2014, Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, Cumbria, UK

Places limited, please book early.

http://www.swarthmoorhall.co.uk

Telephone: 01229 583204

email: info@swarthmoorhall.co.uk

Address: 
Swarthmoor Hall
 Swarthmoor Hall Lane 
Ulverston


Cumbria UK 
LA12 0JQ


 ‘The body is the great poem’

Wallace Stevens

‘Poems about the body’, says Mark Strand,  ‘are often poems of celebration and awe, poems that delight in the body's mysteries, its "dream of flesh", poems that wonder at the body's remarkable capabilities—the hands, bones, face, eyes, brain, arms, genitals, and, of course, the heart, that "ragtime jubilee," as Yusef Komunyakaa calls it.’

Contemporary cognitive linguists and language philosophers as well as poets have followed Walt Whitman (‘I Sing the Body Electric...’) in recognizing that the body is the ground of human understanding as to who and what we are.  The body is home of sexual pleasure, and of the emotions which link person to person.  It is also a source of memory.

Whitman’s verse advocates a complete honouring of the body as a source of psychological, social, and political well-being.  We’ll explore these avenues.

Many poets including Sharon Olds, Jane Hirshfield, Jane Kenyon, Julia Copus, Glyn Hughes, Michael Symonds Roberts and Mark Doty deal with the realities of the body as a process of conveying the "knit of identity", in varied and productive ways. 

During the course we’ll be close-reading poems on the subject and writing our own poems on the theme of the body.  Visual imagery and other prompts will be available.

COURSE OUTLINE: Course Outline

‘BODY PARTS’ – POETRY COURSE WITH PENELOPE SHUTTLE AND GERALDINE GREEN, SWARTHMOOR HALL, 8^TH-12^TH JUNE 2014 £300 per person incl. refreshments on arrival and at breaks, light lunches, breakfasts and evening meals 

Sunday 8^th June 2.30pm arrival 

3pm – 3.15pm – Welcome and Introduction, Refreshments served in The Friendship Room

3.15pm-5pm – Writing exercises/close reading of a poem around the theme ‘body parts’

7pm Evening meal

Monday

9.30am – 1pm – writing exercises, group readback

Break: 11am - 11.15am

Lunch: 1pm -2pm

2pm-5pm – time to write and reflect outdoors

Break: 3.15pm-3.30pm

7pm evening meal, participants to bring with them one poem by another writer themed around the body for group discussion

Tuesday

9.30am – 1pm – writing exercises, group readback

Break: 11am -11.15am

Lunch: at 1pm-2pm

2pm-5pm – time to write and reflect outdoors

Break: 3.15pm-3.30pm

7pm evening meal

Evening reading by tutors

Wednesday 

9.30am-1pm - writing exercises, group read back

Break: 11am-11.15am

Lunch: 1pm-2pm

2pm-4.30pm writing exercises plus time for participants to edit and polish work for evening reading

Break: 3.15-3.30pm

7pm evening meal

Evening reading by participants of new work produced on the course

Thursday: leave by 10am

Penelope Shuttle and Geraldine Green

The following Suites have been booked at the Hall:

Hampsfell Suite

This is a spacious ground floor suite of rooms and is designed for people with limited mobility. It has two twin bedrooms and an open plan living space with fitted kitchen, dining table and living area with TV. A sofa bed in the living room means that this suite can accommodate up to six people. It looks out to the front of the old Hall, its gardens and farmland & woodland beyond.

Sca Fell Suite

This is situated in the old Hall. On the ground floor there is a single and a double bedroom, each with ensuite shower room. On the same floor there is also a kitchen/dining room and a sitting room with an open fire. On the second floor there are two twin bedrooms – one has an en-suite shower room and the other a private bathroom next door. The twin bedrooms in this suite have wonderful views over the Hall’s gardens and beyond to the Fells. 

Kirk Fell Suite

This is also situated in the old Hall. The accommodation is arranged over two floors. On the first floor it has a twin bedroom with wash hand basin and a shower room close by. On the same floor it also has a lovely bright living space with fitted kitchen, dining table, sofa bed, armchairs  and TV. Through original mullioned windows the view looks out toward the archway which marks the entrance to the Hall and farmland beyond.  On the second floor there is a single bedroom with a wash hand basin and a twin bedroom under the eaves.

http://www.swarthmoorhall.co.uk/holiday-accommodation/self-catering.php

Sandstone, Fleswick Bay, St. Bees, Cumbria, UK
Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, Cumbria, UK
photos by Geraldine Green