Riffing off LaChapelle’s Way of the Mountain teachings, we will explore poetry’s bardic tradition of speaking for place & speaking deeply in place. We will get a taste for the handy un-American tool of learning by listening. And we will get to experience first-hand the West Coast style of poetry performance. I’ve been thinking a lot about workshops in light of Paolo Friere’s Pedogogy of the Oppressed. Workshops seem to perpetuate the kind of top-down teaching that has become standard for all but the highest levels of American education. But I find I learn best via peer-to-peer teaching: roundtable discussions, Bohmian dialogues, sharing circles. I love work in the service of play, not work for its own sake. Sharing writing ought to be enjoyable, even if it is serious or sometimes very sad. As facilitator Carolin Goethal noted last year online : "A growing body of research shows that learning is a highly social and emotional affair ...We learn a lot better when embedded in trusting and appreciative relationships with our teachers and peers. Psychological safety, ie. a trustful environment that allows for vulnerability and mistakes, is proven to enable high performance in learning and work environments.” In the Rainbow Family tradition of decision-making, a “talking stick” is passed around a circle and whomever has the stick has the floor. Everyone else listens. The weakness of this system is that it takes a long time to reach consensus. The strength, as Erik Erikson would note, is that everyone is heard. In her writing Dolores taught us the importance of the Gourd as a symbol of partnership culture, having both the curved bowl of the feminine and the phallic thrust of the masculine. Which is why over the years I’ve developed the Gourd Circle tradition for sharing stories, heartsongs, polished poetry, and poetry in performance. It is a particularly good technique for welding a class of strangers (in this case, aspiring poets & writers) into an attentive, empathetic group. I’ve also found it quite useful as the closing session of a conference or symposium. It gives everyone a chance to speak, share their insights, their observations – not just the talking heads. Bring a blanket or cushion –we usually sit in a circle on the floor, although elders are always welcome to use a chair. For the sharing circle itself I ask participants to bring at least four short poems to read/perform (each of two minutes or less) – two of poets or writers you deeply admire & two of your own pieces. Suggested reading: Sacred Land Sacred Sex Rapture of the Deep: Concerning Deep Ecology & Celebrating Life (Kivaki Press, 1992, 2nd Printing) Deep Powder Snow: Forty-Years of Ecstatic Skiing, Avalanches, and Earth Wisdom (Kivaki Press, 1993) “Ritual Is Essential” https://www.context.org/iclib/ic05/lachapel/