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What is rhythm,
Is it something you feel, taste, hear, or smell?
Is rhythm something you touch?
Does it crawl over your skin,
make you move or grove?

This question can be so simple, like the sun slipping over skin in summer, or it can be complex, the way light can play tricks on the eyes. For me rhythm is a lot like seeing something new in the familiar and seeing something familiar in the new. It is the unexpected, the meanings and metaphors just on the edge of my perception -the just barely in reach- that makes writing a continually engaging experience.

Writing for me is foremost about letting the connections that exist between words exist for themselves, removing myself a little from the equation and then returning to delve deeply into what the words are saying not only about myself but also about the world around me.

When writing is approached this way, it opens up the text created be it a poem, a story, a paragraph or an essay to mean many things to many. It is from the deep well of these complex possibilities that this writing lab focused on rhythm is constructed. In this lab I will ask you my students to let go of what you fear about writing, let go of the rules you think you know and be open to having fun with writing in ways you may not be used to.

It is my hope that through the craft lessons in this lab focused on how rhythm is a foundational aspect of written work, how rhythm on the page has it own language, and how rhythm can be translated from the spoken voice to the page that we all will learn interesting ways of approaching writing in whatever form we find most helpful.