Classes

We invite you to explore your creativity! Take time to pay attention to your muse, notice the beauty of the landscape and spend a few hours with a community of poets for support of your craft. Add another layer of creativity and play to establish or create your writing habit. You do not have to consider yourself a writer or artist to take these classes, or attend a reading or retreat, although if you are, you will find solace with other artists and rejuvenate your creative process.

Jules Nyquist, founder, along with her spouse John Roche lead small groups in unique settings with plenty of individual attention. We supply all handouts or downloads, along with recommended (but always optional) reading lists. Snacks and breaks are worked in, with time to walk the labyrinth, explore the enchanted forest or browse our extensive collection of poetry books for sale. We usually offer one pay-as-you-are-able scholarship option per class to help writers attend regardless of income. 

Labyrinth broadside from the 2023 Poet’s Picnic booklet, Albuquerque Open Space Visitor Center, May 20, 2023. A celebration of Nature, Calligraphy, Music & Poetry.


What Students Are Saying

 

Poetry Playhouse

Black arrow points to the left

Footprints uncertain

— Hollie, 2020

“The outcome from the Writing for a Purpose class with Jules Nyquist went beyond my expectations. I already knew the path I wanted to take but I wasn’t progressing toward my objective. This class helped me question why I was unable to meet my goal… I am back on track with my writing and my well being. If you are questioning your decisions or are undecided on a specific course, this class will help you understand if the obstacles are fantasy or genuine. Do I want to or do I have to? A highly motivating class.”

— KP

“I went in to this class not knowing what to expect. I came out of this class with a deeper understanding of myself and what being an activist means to me.”

— WF

Jules’ Poetry Playhouse

Poem by Megan Baldrige

 

At Jules' Poetry Playhouse
Jules and Poe are playing Pied Piper
to plucky and pusillanimous poets
who are playing
around with words.

 Here at the Playhouse,
poets make a play for the right word.
Sometimes the words
play hard to get,
but they stay in play,
playing the parts of ingenues
and veterans in playful poetry.

 Playing hooky from ordinary use,
playing off each other.
Words are kept in play,
playing together,
they play nice, not nice
for momentary pleasure,
or they play for keeps
and we play along.

 At play in the fields of this Playhouse,
don't you roll over and play dead
we're playing with poetry
we're not playing at poetry.
We're playing for all it's worth
playing the words up
playing around with them
playing down the humdrum,
bringing all of our voices into play,
and we're in La Burque
so we don't need to worry
if it will play in Peoria.

Megan Baldrige is the author of several books of poetry published by Jules' Poetry Playhouse Publications.

Poetry workshop by Terry Dunbar

 

As I heard it,

The workshop leader was arguing

That beat poets

Framed and formed modern American poetry

I got him to acknowledge that

Bukowski deserved at least a seat in the corner of the room.

 

Yes, they were iconoclasts,

And appearance on the page mattered.

But the story of dissent

And how to portray it

Was well on its way

Well before Homer and Virgil.

 

A mark on tree bark

Scratches on stone

Making lasting meaning.

And of course, someone asked,

Why the mark,

And of course, someone else edited the scratch.

 

Cuneiform, syllabary, kanji

Demotic, hieroglyphic

It all worked for moons and eclipses uncounted.

 

Then, perhaps Guttenberg saw scribes toiling by oil lamp

And knew there had to be a better way.

 

And the Mimeo Revolution saw

That printed meaning was being bogarted

By the chosen few with industrial size presses

The size of tanks,

And knew there had to be a better way.

 

If not a better way,

Another way.

Another way to reach the masses

Or at the very least the anointed Aquarians of the age

Who weren’t bound by the hard-bound.

They proved the concept.

The counter-culture counted.

 

Fingers thrown at conventions, they went their multifarious ways.

Driven by the urge to share and dedication to prosody,

They wrote on,

Oblivious to the threat of censure.

 

Paper could be folded, fluted, and fanned at little cost.

Why jump hurdles if you can run around?

Paper covers rock, rock breaks scissors,

And staples kick hard spines to the curb.

 

And here we are, the aging anointed,

Or maybe just the self-selected,

To take up where they left off.

 

All hail the mimeo and ditto,

Following the beats.