#34 Ellen Bass: Nourishing and Sustaining Ourselves Through Poetry

Ellen Bass is an award-winning poet, author, and a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. Her poems appear frequently in The New Yorker, American Poetry Review, and many other journals. Her poetry books include Indigo, Like a Beggar, The Human Line, and Mules of Love. Her nonfiction books include the groundbreaking The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse and Free Your Mind: The Book for Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Youth. Bass founded poetry workshops at Salinas Valley State Prison and the Santa Cruz, California jails, and teaches in the MFA writing program at Pacific University. 

From her view as a poet, Ellen addresses the question of “What Could Possibly Go Right?” with insights including:

There’s growing interest and diversity of poetry enthusiasts, in addition to increased accessibility and connection through our virtual communities now. “Poetry is so nourishing, and sustaining, and gives us a chance to grieve, and gives us a chance to celebrate.”The best poetry combines the personal with political.It's not what you do when you're getting to the end of your rope; it's what you do when you're AT the end of your rope.Poetry is about discovery and the process of being transformed. “Why I think most people write poems is so that at the end, they will not be the same person they were before they wrote the poem.”

Resources

Living Room Craft Talks by Ellen BassBook: All We Can Save: Truth, Courage, and Solutions for the Climate Crisis edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

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