Friday, March 27, 2020

An Hour with Rupi Kaur

In this season of uncertainty, so many people are sharing their talents with others to provide support. This afternoon, I participated in the poet Rupi Kaur's hour-long writing workshop on Instagram. I was introduced to Rupi's book, the sun and her flowers by a friend. At that time, Rupi's poetry pulled me through a breakup.

Rupi began our session with a quote by author, Flannery O'Connor, who said: "I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say."Instantaneously I was pulled further into the workshop because I connected to O'Connor. Most of the time, I'm able to express myself more easily and honestly when I've put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.

Working through the three writing prompts, Rupi guided us, nudged, supported, and then cheered as some authors shared their work.


She led us through an exercise in how she creates her spoken word poems. I've decided to share the first draft of my spoken word poem that I wrote during her workshop. The green writing is Rupi's coaching and words, while the gold writing is my poem.





This is a poem I'll go back to revise sometime soon. I've got decisions to make but like the snake idea that I've got going so far. Rupi told us her spoken word poems can take a week or months. She reminded us that sometimes letting things ferment; we can grow more.

At one point, I paused my writing because I looked up from my notebook and noticed that over 9,000 people had joined her live session. What a powerful moment. All the 9,000 participants, sharing this experience of writing together. I wonder what it sounded like in heaven.

Rupi's Instagram story, aka her Live poetry workshop, is available for the next 24 hours on her Instagram so you can enjoy it too. 

Just a little warning that her final prompt would not be appropriate for all ages. 

4 comments:

  1. I need to be more stunned to these online writing moments. I follow Rupi Karr on IG and have read the book “the sun and her flowers.” A friend (school counselor) loaned it to me. It was a gift to her from her teen daughter, which I think is so special. The illustrations are wonderful. Now I must catch that IG story before it disappears.

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    1. What a wonderful gift that your friend gave to her daughter and loaned you. I do love her poetry and I think within her poems, you find yourself or a loved one or a friend whose experience is shared through them. Hope you were able to catch her IG live!

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  2. Wow that is a lot of followers for one writing workshop. Thanks for the introduction and sharing your introductory draft. The way she talks you through it is very interesting, although I think I'm too late to catch the workshop now.

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    1. It was a crazy number of followers. I was surprised but at the same time, an opportunity to learn with her is something that I sprang up to grab, guess I wasn't alone. Her process was interesting and I'd like to try it again without the time constraints. I don't tend to write my poetry in this manner so in some ways having the form felt a bit strange but a good way to push myself too.

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