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Pen to Paper: A Healing Practice Using Poetic Prompts

In Pen to Paper, we will use poetry prompts curated for their ability to inspire writing from the belly not the brain.

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Pen to Paper: A Healing Practice Using Poetic Prompts

Pen to Paper: A Healing Practice Using Poetic Prompts

In Pen to Paper, we will use poetry prompts curated for their ability to inspire writing from the belly not the brain.

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Registrations Closed

About

In 2020, instructor Kathleen O’Brien Cunningham was introduced to Wild Writing TM — the beautiful and tender teaching method Laurie Wagner (27powers.org) has mastered and taught for decades. When Kathleen was faced with the isolation of COVID, a car-totaling accident, and the sudden death of her lovely sweetheart of 30-plus years, the Wild Writing TM practice saved her life. 

The method uses poetry or poetic prose as a prompt for putting pen to paper, the writer never stopping, for a given time period. The prompts (known as “jump off lines”) are chosen for their healing potential, and their likelihood of evoking feelings and thoughts from the belly, not the brain. It is not unusual to find the writing turning into something more, perhaps your own poem, essay, or story. While that’s a plus, however, it's not the point. This is a healing modality — a poetic doorway to someplace you want to go, somehow.

Class Policies

Ages 14 and up are welcome.

Instructor
Kathleen O'Brien

Kathleen has been involved with the BARN as an active member of the Writer's Studio (including serving on Studio's Steering Committee) and a member of the Editorial Team producing the BARN's 2025 Writers' Studio Annual Collection. She had a long career of technical writing, including two full-length books and many articles on the subject of sustainable building. She is returning to her first loves, poetry and short fiction, and has published in Kerning, The Gift, Poetry Breakfast, The Journal of Expressive Writing, The Literary Nest, and Academy of the Heart and Mind. Her poem “Ode to Time” was included in the 2024 Ars Poetica program at BARN and her poems have been featured in the local ‘Poetry Corners’ Collections 2024 and 2025. Her full-length poetry collection Novena to Loss and Other Love Poems earned Honorable Mention in Moonpath Press' Sally Albiso Award Competition. Moonpath has scheduled publication of the collection for Fall 2026.

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