One of the big lessons I learned from taking pottery classes over the last five or six years, (besides learning that glazing and kiln failures can be nourishing in their own way), is that every teacher you encounter can tell you something important about craft.
I approach every new ceramics class as a beginner. I try to forget everything I've learned from another teacher and try to hear the new angle, point of view and perspective the teacher before me has to offer. If you look at taking a class like learning martial arts or Zen Buddhism, receiving the gift of a master's teachings is an amazing honor and viewing each teacher, whether or not you agree with them about everything, as a master of some level bestowing upon you a gift, this angle can transform the process of learning for you.
It's both a generous posture to take and, trust me, you will get much more out of it, including a kind of spiritual experience. I'm trying to bring this spirit of being a perpetual beginning student with me in all my adventures with poetry.
Before I leave Santa I decided to take some more poetry classes at the community college. They're only $80-100 per class and I get a very energizing sense of community from them. On Tuesdays, I'm taking my second poetry workshop with Barbara Rockman. I love her energy, her point of view and her calm way of honoring the work of poets. Last week we started with discussions on descriptive poems and read some James Wright.
On Thursdays I'm taking an interesting poetry discussion class themed around Nobel Prize winning poets. David Markwardt teaches it and last week we discussed the first Nobel Prize winning poet in 1913, Rabindranath Tagore. This poet was new to me and I loved getting to know him better; I loved his over-the-top exuberance and devil may care self in battle with his organized and orderly self. Of the poems we read, my favorites were "The Gardener 85," "Playthings," and "O you mad, you superbly drunk!"
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