Poetry on the Farm with Arro Mandell: Attention, Relationship, and Association

“How do gatherings sometimes become happenings, that is, greater than the sum of their parts?”

—Anna Tsing, Mushroom at the End of the World

A poem, like a farm, is a means of creating and maintaining relations with the world around us. Through a poem, we interchange with our environment, taking in the surprises our attention brings, receiving and retrieving the associations it takes us towards, and then returning to the object of our attention itself.  In this generative workshop on the farm, we will practice paying deep attention to our surroundings and learn about where that looking can lead us. Through a series of exercises, we will approach the poem as gatherers, collecting together what our attention brings us. We will leap across time, through memories in order to fashion together a ‘happening,’ something that diverts, subverts, or completely thwarts our intentions, something that becomes ‘more’ than what we put into it (just as plants on the farm have done!). We will read poetry written by gardeners and farmers that weaves between attention to the present and to memories and consider how the poems are made. We will collaborate together to create new poems that map the crossings between our selves, our pasts, each other, and the farm. We will drink tea, work on the farm, read poems, write, and share them. Every participant will leave with a mini book consisting of one poem they’ve written and one poem written in collaboration with someone else.

Common Ground Farm, 79 Farmstead Lane, Wappingers Falls, NY

Saturday, September 14th, 1:30 to 5:30pm.

We are offering sliding scale pricing for this event. To help decide which tier is right for you, please consider the following:

Consider choosing the $15 tier: If attending this workshop would feel inaccessible at the full price.

Consider choosing the $30 tier: If you are able to pay for the full price of the workshop.

Consider choosing the $45 tier: If you are able to pay for the full price of the workshop and would like to additionally support Common Ground and all of the work that we do for our community.