BODY PARTS A Residential Poetry Course with Penelope
Shuttle and Geraldine Green June 8th- 12th 2014, Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, Cumbria, UK
Places limited, please book early.
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
7pm evening meal
COURSE OUTLINE: Course Outline
‘BODY PARTS’ – POETRY
COURSE WITH PENELOPE SHUTTLE AND GERALDINE GREEN, SWARTHMOOR HALL, 8TH-12TH
JUNE 2014 £300 per person incl. refreshments on arrival and at breaks, light lunches, breakfasts and evening meals
Sunday 8th
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
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.
Sandstone, Fleswick Bay, St. Bees, Cumbria, UK
Swarthmoor Hall, Ulverston, Cumbria, UK
photos by Geraldine Green
