Episodes

Season 5

Craft

Jessica

Season 5, Episode 11

We explore what this word means to us as creators, from the silly to the serious. Plus the role of intuition, practice and inner knowing. Jessica shares her poem “On Deciding on Learning to Write” and talks about her experience with writing workshops. Catherine shares two poems that bookend her writing journey: “Pupa” the title poem from her first book and “Part of the Song Where the Dead Come From” from her latest book, Put Flowers Around Us and Pretend We’re Dead: New and Selected Poems.

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Season 5

Ideas

Jessica

Season 5, Episode 10

Beginning ideas, sustaining ideas, consuming ideas—how as creators do we relate to this word? Jessica shares her poem “The Crossing of Candle Eyes” and Catherine shares three short poems inspired by her mother: “The Red Element” “It’s Only Her Piano Face” and “ My Suburban Forest.”

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Season 5

Holding On & Letting Go

Jessica

Season 5, Episode 9

While staying in to rest and heal what occupies our mind and imagination? What does it mean to “clean house”? How do we know what to hold on to and when to let go? We explore these things in dialogue and in poetry. Jessica shares two poems: “Leaving Home” and “Shine Firefly” and Catherine shares her poems “Freckle” and “Father’s Tattoo.”

Thanks for your patience between episodes as we took a short winter break!

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Season 5

Winter and Self Care

Jessica

Season 5, Episode 8

Writing, resting, going inward, the importance of self-care. Letting go. Balance. Writing through dark times. Balancing our creative life with teaching. Valuing our own rhythm. Catherine reads an excerpt from her memoir Aether: An Out-of-Body Lyric and Jessica reads an excerpt from a book about Métis beadwork.

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Season 5

Content, Craft, & Communication

Jessica

Season 5, Episode 6

How do you know you are a writer? Is it possible to find poetry in the everyday? What’s it like to share raw work? What might we do with our dream lines? Catherine shares her poem “Last Shadow” and Jessica shares a new poem “Robin Takes a Break.”

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Season 5

Learning is Change

Jessica

Season 5, Episode 5

What assists us when we’re learning? What happens when we’re open and curious? Learning isn’t always easy and the unknown is our biggest teacher. Yet, how as writers do we share what we’ve learned? And what does the Medicine Wheel teach us? Catherine shares her poem “The Girl without Birds at the Top of the Stairs” and Jessica shares her poem “To Begin Again.”

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Season 5

What is it to be Inspired?

Jessica

Season 5, Episode 4

This question leads us to talk about many things including P.K. Page, what it’s like to be a highly sensitive child, whether we’d like the gift of invisibility or mind control, the power of dreams, when dreams turn to visions and when visions turn to poems. Catherine shares her poem “The Bullied” and Jessica shares her poem “How Old Is Your Spirit.”

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Season 5

Try Everything

Jessica

Season 5, Episode 3

What happens when we move from word to image? Catherine talks about her experience leading a creative problem-solving workshop and how the images that appear know more than we do. What happens when we let go of control? Jessica talks about what her books have to say to her (yes, they do know where they want to be in her new home!). She also shares her experience braiding sweetgrass and the poem it inspired. We end our chat with Catherine’s poem on metamorphosis: “Imago.”

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Season 5

The Circle and The Creative Act

Jessica

Season 5, Episode 2

We talk about Rick Rubin’s book The Creative Act: A Way of Being and what it awakens in us as creators. What does it mean to lead a creative life? How do we get into a creative space? Catherine shares what recently happened on a walk to circle her back to her poem “Wind Tricks.” Jessica shares some insights about her intuitive painting journey as well as her poem “Lost Lesson.” And yes, the forest has eyes.

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