It’s the start of gardening season, so this seemed like the right time for this poem.
This one’s about thinking back to a time when you were a novice gardener, but it’s also about thinking back to a time when you were just starting a long-term, serious relationship, maybe even a marriage, but at that point, at the beginning, you didn’t know yet how hard it might be, what obstacles you might face, and you thought—back then—that you and your partner had all the answers.
This poem was written by yours truly, Shuly Xóchitl Cawood, and is in my poetry collection, Trouble Can Be So Beautiful at the Beginning (Mercer University Press, 2021), winner of the Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry.
Readers, thank you for coming along with me every April—National Poetry Month—on my poetry jaunt. I hope the poems I shared piqued your interest in poetry, if it needed to be piqued, and that it showed you that a really great poem can be accessible to all.
If you missed the other poems I featured, you can find them here and here and here and here.
Photo credit: Zoe Schaeffer from Unsplash.com
Upcoming Online Writing Workshops
The Art of Memoir & Personal Essay: A Generative Weeklong Workshop
Monday-Friday, June 20-June 24, 2022
(meeting daily 9:30-11 a.m. ET and 2:30-4:30 p.m. ET)
It’s time for a summer writing bootcamp! Join me in this online (Zoom) workshop during which you will meet other writers, generate new writing, read chapters and essays that inspire, and learn tools and techniques on the craft of personal essay/memoir writing. There are no critiques in this workshop. The goal is for you to leave with first drafts and a writer’s toolbox ready to help you finish and write the rest of your life stories. Space is limited. Cost: $349; early bird rate going now: $279. Learn more here. REGISTER HERE.
Let’s Write Together!
Tuesdays at noon EST (on Zoom): May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
Having a hard time finding inspiration and motivation to write? Join me for any (or all) of these online one-hour sessions on Tuesdays at noon EST. We’ll talk about a piece of writing, I will give you a prompt, and then you will WRITE in the genre of your choosing. These workshops are in partnership with Press 53. Cost: $10/session. Register for any of them here.
"These workshops have been excellent, and they are exactly what I need in the middle of my busy work day." —J.B.
A Lunchtime Workshop Series in Flash Nonfiction
A Conversation with John Valeri,
on Central Booking
I had the good fortune of talking with John Valeri about poetry and writing. As always, he was warm and kind, and he made me laugh, which is always a wonderful thing. (Click on the image to get the video.)
