A project in the unmaking and remaking of a Self.
For more information on the process and my plans, see this link: Updates
And there is the thing that one does, the needle one plies, the work, and within that work a chance to take thoughts that are hot and formless and to place them slowly and with meticulous effort into some shapely heat-retaining form, even as the gods, or nature, or the soundless wheels of time have made forms all across the soft, curved universe–that is to say, having chosen to claim my life, I have made for myself, out of work and love, a handsome life.
Upstream/ Mary Oliver
This project is about how to be, not who to be, or what to be, or even why to bother being, and is rooted in the belief that we both make the world and are made by it through our daily practices.
How to Be…some suggestions
- Open
- Caring
- Trouble
- Bewildered/Uncertain
- Undisciplined
- In Wonder/Joy/Delight/Love
- Slow
- Enough
- Useless (for capitalism)
- Upright and Outside, Moving
- When you cannot see
- a Fish
- a Poet
- a Daughter
Habits/Practices/Methods
- The Classroom
- Beside/s
- Structures and Form
- Ask these Questions
- Give Attention/Attend/Be Attentive
- Engagement
- On Reading
- Lists
- Routine
- Methods for Remembering
- Purpose/Goals
- Practice
- Knowledge
- Work
Areas of Study
- Birds
- Bees
- Water and Stone
- Wind
- Color
- Moss and Mushrooms and Grass
- Dirt and Dust
- Windows
- Shadows
Exercises
Undisciplined’s Exercises
- Experiments: An Unabridged List
- Running Experiment: Record Myself Mid-Run
- Running Experiment: Record Myself Running Up a Hill
- Writing in a state of mind that seems less than congenial
- Learn to Listen
- When You Can’t Move, Memorize a Poem
- To Feel How Words Move, Memorize a Poem
- Deranging and Making Strange: Acronyms
- Deranging and Making Strange: Anagrams
- Injury Recovery Plan
- Rhythmic Breathing
- Get to Know the Path
- List What You Love
- A Deck Do-Nothing
- Put a Bird In It
- Spend March with Emily Dickinson
- April is for Mary (Oliver)
- Before/During/After
- Translating Wonder Into Words: 6 Suggestions
Others’ Exercises
- Poetry Walk
- The Walk Poem
- Marathon Writing Training
- Please Add to This List/ Bernadette Mayer
- 3 Things/ Adam Clay
Suggestions from Others
- Instructions / Mary Oliver and Laurie Meyers
- How to be Perfect/ Ron Padgett
- How to be a Poet/ Wendell Berry
- Karma Repair Kit Items 1-4/ Richard Brautigan
- Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front/ Wendell Berry
- Make Trouble from the Inside/ John Waters
- The Wisdom of Basho
- Feminist Curiosity/ Cynthia Enloe