Poetry as Consolation

The consolations of poetry are many. How can they support us now?

Over years of teaching and practice, I’ve gathered poems and creative approaches that invite calm, steadiness, and even joy—whether we’re navigating challenges on the page or in our lives.

Since 2020, participants in this pop-up workshop series have described the practice as centering, catalytic, and a reminder that, though we come from different places and experiences, poetry offers us a shared ground. I would love for you to join me there, along with a guest artist whose work explores the themes and possibilities of writing as a healing modality.

Our guest on Wednesday, October 8, 4-5 pm is poet Aiyana Masla, author of The Underdream.

All are welcome. No prior creative writing experience required.

Register below.

Poetry as Consolation Pop-up Workshop

An experiential workshop where we will explore the benefits of writing poetry in the midst of the overwhelm of real life. No experience required. ~Connect with a warm and welcoming community of fellow writers, secret poets, and seekers ~Write a new poem or poetic passage ~Remember how good it feels to create something, no matter how humble ~Support the Poetry Forge Scholarship Fund, which serves dozens of writers each year ~Feel inspired

Suggested donation $35.00. Please give what you can.

"To say I'm inspired is an understatement."

Diane S.

"Poetry as Consolation has made a difference in so many ways! It has gotten me writing poetry again, introduced me to so many poets I would not have met otherwise, and it has truly been a consolation during a prolonged period of isolation at home. And it has also given me access to a poetry workshop on my meager, fixed income." —Kathleen A.

Sliding scale

community writing workshop

open to all

Holly Wren Spaulding is an award winning teacher, poet, and interdisciplinary artist living on the southern seacoast of Maine. In 2013 she founded Poetry Forge, where she teaches creative writing workshops and teaches the art of the poetry chapbook. Holly hosts writing retreats in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, on the Leelanau Peninsula, and in her own garden. She has also taught for Interlochen Center for the Arts, Kripalu Center, and Omega Institute.

Spaulding's poems, essays, book reviews and articles have appeared widely, including in Michigan Quarterly Review, Witness, Poetry Northwest and elsewhere. Her recent publications include Familiars: Poems (Alice Greene & Co., 2020), Fire (St. Brigid Press, 2021), and Between Us (Alice Greene & Co., 2022). Her poems have been anthologized inThe Poetry of Presence and The Wonder of Small Things: Poems of Peace and Renewal.