Words in Place

This nine-week writing course follows a path through the realms of nature, from mineral to plants, animal, and people. By exploring the qualities of each, Words in Place encourages the writer to find a unique, authentic voice and to forge a new relationship the inner and outer worlds.

Paul Matthews offers a rich variety of creative techniques and exercises, including “haiku hikes,” word and story games, written conversation, collaborative writing, and “tiny tales.”

The reader will enjoy this powerful and unusual book both for its help in connecting with nature and for its insights into imagination and the poets and writers who created the literary geography of East Sussex, the author’s home.

Contents:

• WEEK ONE: Opening Our Senses to Each Other and the World
• WEEK TWO: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire
• WEEK THREE: Turning a New Leaf
• WEEK FOUR: The Flowering Garden and Our Responses to It
• WEEK FIVE: The Animal in Nature
• WEEK SIX: Giving Voice to the Animals
• WEEK SEVEN: Being Human
• WEEK EIGHT: The Story We Belong to
• WEEK NINE: Walking Back the Way We Came

About the Author

Paul Matthews, poet and teacher of Spatial Dynamics, is the director of Language Alive―the creative writing course at Emerson College. His publications include Sing Me the Creation (Hawthorn Press) and The Ground that Love Seeks (Five Seasons Press). He has traveled widely with his work, giving poetry readings and talks and leading workshops in the U.K., Germany, Sweden, the U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. He recently founded “Poetry Otherwise” to encourage poetry in communities.