I spent the weekend alone at a cabin on the north shore of Lake Superior. The cabin was small—1 bedroom—with raw wood walls and fire-stove heat and huge windows overlooking the lake.
Lake Superior is massive and this time of year it has floating ice bergs, small ones, and it has broken up the plate of ice cover and stacked it to the side so the melted waters can make their way north. It’s hilly and covered in bare birches.
I needed to write. I’ve been so busy preparing for my advance poetry writing class… that requires very little actual advanced poetry writing (don’t get me started)… that I needed to put the busy work aside and actually do the creative writing I’m drawn to do.
Going there and being in that environment and alone and giving myself permission not to read things or do exercises that aren’t inspiring—it opened the floodgates.
Friday night I read some Mark Strand, who I recently discovered (see below). He’s got a fantastic collection of essays. I started Mary Oliver’s book on crafting poetry—helpful so far. I’m trying not to let some negative things I’ve heard about her taint my image. And I wrote.
The next morning I made some really fantastic coffee and breakfast and sat in front of a view of the lake and I wrote more. Then I went to Split Rock Lighthouse and went for a walk to the lighthouse, around it, out on a narrow stretch of rocky land and through the woods. The weather rocked—I actually had a little tan. In March. In Minnesota.
Then I got a massage. Sigh. It was wonderful. My masseuse and I talked, and she told me she’s begun renting out her cabin and is trying to start creative workshops there in a studio space. I said I want to lead creative poetry workshops, and she invited my boyfriend and I out to stay at her cabin in May and asked me to consider running a workshop there for poets. It was all very serendipitous.
Then I returned to the cabin where I made myself dinner. I had wine. A fire. A view of an oceanic lake. A teaching prospect. All was well.
In all, I wrote or edited 15 new poems, read some of 4 books and wrote in my journal. It was exactly what I needed.
Lake Superior is massive and this time of year it has floating ice bergs, small ones, and it has broken up the plate of ice cover and stacked it to the side so the melted waters can make their way north. It’s hilly and covered in bare birches.
I needed to write. I’ve been so busy preparing for my advance poetry writing class… that requires very little actual advanced poetry writing (don’t get me started)… that I needed to put the busy work aside and actually do the creative writing I’m drawn to do.
Going there and being in that environment and alone and giving myself permission not to read things or do exercises that aren’t inspiring—it opened the floodgates.
Friday night I read some Mark Strand, who I recently discovered (see below). He’s got a fantastic collection of essays. I started Mary Oliver’s book on crafting poetry—helpful so far. I’m trying not to let some negative things I’ve heard about her taint my image. And I wrote.
The next morning I made some really fantastic coffee and breakfast and sat in front of a view of the lake and I wrote more. Then I went to Split Rock Lighthouse and went for a walk to the lighthouse, around it, out on a narrow stretch of rocky land and through the woods. The weather rocked—I actually had a little tan. In March. In Minnesota.
Then I got a massage. Sigh. It was wonderful. My masseuse and I talked, and she told me she’s begun renting out her cabin and is trying to start creative workshops there in a studio space. I said I want to lead creative poetry workshops, and she invited my boyfriend and I out to stay at her cabin in May and asked me to consider running a workshop there for poets. It was all very serendipitous.
Then I returned to the cabin where I made myself dinner. I had wine. A fire. A view of an oceanic lake. A teaching prospect. All was well.
In all, I wrote or edited 15 new poems, read some of 4 books and wrote in my journal. It was exactly what I needed.
2 comments:
It sounds a lot like heaven.
SO glad you had a good experience. Yay Cavu!
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