I read a new poem at Planet Earth Poetry the evening of October 6. It seemed that listeners enjoyed it, so I recorded a reading of it.

I wrote the first draft during an online workshop in June given by the Victoria poet Carla Funk. I’ve participated in several of Carla’s workshops since moving to Victoria, and have had much poetic inspiration from them. Each session has a theme, and Carla starts by reading a few selected works of other poets, many of whom are new to me. After her readings, the participants have short amounts of time to do some writing. We then read what we’ve written (if we choose to do so), as Carla listens with complete focus and attention. After each reading she gives the poet useful feedback about what she likes, and ideas about how the poets could expand their pieces, or drill deeper.

The particular situation which generated the piece which follows was to think of a “curative” or “prescription” for something that ails. As I recall, I had a sore neck at the time from too much computer work, so that was on my mind.

Here’s “How to Write without Ruining your Body”.