The Art of Losing: A Poetry Workshop via Zoom

Whether it’s the death of a parent, a spouse, a friend, a pet, or a relationship, we are faced with loss again and again in our lives. And now with the pandemic and the climate crisis bearing down on us, we are increasingly aware of just how vulnerable we are as individuals, as a country, and as a species. In this six-week online poetry workshop, we’ll explore the art of losing, how we can work with loss in the healing space of a poem to find comfort and consolation, perhaps even redemption and a renewed sense of aliveness in the aftermath of grief. We’ll read and discuss poems by W.H. Auden, Elizabeth Bishop, Philip Larkin, Jack Gilbert, Seamus Heaney, Lucille Clifton, Billy Collins, Amy Gerstler, Claudia Emerson, and many others. Some portion of every session will be devoted to the poems you’ll write in response to our readings and weekly prompts. Our text will be The Art of Losing: Poems of Grief and Healing, edited by Kevin Young.

• Meets: Fridays, 10:30 AM – 1:00 PM PST, September 18 – October 22
• Cost:  $300 (Six three-hour sessions)
• Enrollment:  Minimum 5, Maximum 12.
• Location: ZOOM –

John Brehm is the author of three books of poetry: Sea of Faith, Help Is on the Way, and No Day at the Beach, all from the University of Wisconsin Press. He is the editor of The Poetry of Impermanence, Mindfulness, and Joy and the associate editor of The Oxford Book of American Poetry. His poems have appeared in Poetry, The Gettysburg Review, The Southern Review, Plume, Gulf Coast, New Ohio Review, The Writer’s Almanac, Best American Poetry, and many other journals and anthologies. He lives in Portland.