James Engelhardt: “I've been thinking a lot about what sustains creativity. The bedrock answer is, as it is for all sustainability projects, energy. Energy, for my writing, comes from the land I'm in, the animals and other life I share the land with, and culture. All of these things add language, the material I work with, they direct my attention beyond the bony shell of my own, limited skull, and they excite the chemical-electrical wilderness of my brain. Plus, a bit of focus.”
Retreived from http://riverofplay.typepad.com/river_of_play/ecopoetic_theory/
Discussion: What do you think Englehardt means by energy?
Read: "Stewards of Memory"by Martha Bergland. Highlight important passages. Create 5 questions for discussion: in the text, around the text, beyond the text.
Discussion: How does she describe a romantic place? What would she attribute as the energy of place?
NINTH ANNIVERSARY by Robinson Jeffers
ReplyDeleteOnly a fortnight out of nine years has found me afield
From the ocean-cliff where I perched my house,
And long before that I lived in hearing of the long voice
And thunder of the shore: yet to this hour
I neverl look west but shaken with a joyful shock of astonishment,
By dark nor by day: there the most glorious
Creature on earth shings in the nights or glitters int he suns,
Or feels of its stone in the blind fog,
Or shakes its hair in the storms: I never wake in my bed
But surprised with pleasure to hear it speaking.
An east wind brings me the smell of the river, all the others carry
The sea-fragrances, the salt and the sea-wings.
--What, did my blood before me live inland always? --Admire
One's next neighbor after nine years?
Choose a relevant place to you. Relating to today's discussion, describe the place's energy. You may write this in any form.
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