The body is a palimpsest—a body becoming (questioning), clarified by atmospheric perspectives. The page is also a body. Is also a palimpsest. Process then, a continuation. Not to an end, but to an entering (of questions). Meaning is only in the making. You cannot solve a body, you cannot perfect the page, but where the body and the page meet becomes process, possibility.

Ed Sanders described the essence of investigative poetics as “lines of lyric beauty [that] descend from data clusters…a melodic blizzard of data-fragments.” The purpose of those data clusters is simple–to act so as to create more possibilities to act. Action fails when it does not create more possibilities to act. It is a process, not a means to an end. 

In this 4 week workshop (3 weeks online, 1 week on-site) we will explore investigative poetics specifically within the context of making. You will be asked to investigate a process of making, whether it’s a creative process, a manufacturing process, or a natural process, and seek out new ways of seeing and understanding through poetry. 

Ginger Teppner: I am a writer of both poetry and prose. I allow for the possibility that poetry and prose are complete only when conjoined, existing in time and space together, unable to be separate. Start with form and content must erupt. Start with content; form is manifest. It is not about appearing clever. It is about ultimate connection and the possibility of sneaking under the trip wire of pre-thought. It is about writing around the thickness of expectation.

For the first time the concept of poet/writer as time mechanic resonates completely, as I become less and less interested in definition unless it pertains to intent. I become estranged from the questions of what does this mean and where is this going? Who I am now becomes a reflection of who I am now exemplified in the spaces present between the words and lines and contours and time and location. All artifacts exist at the same time in conversation with each other. Without aggression, suspended by curiousity, and with total appreciation for the collective and divine, form finds an innocent page, right place, and closest representation. A definition of artifice: below the referential, sonic, and spacial is another atmosphere with an undercurrent that defies narrative and logic, the ineffable unknown.

Andrew Helton is writer, artist, and printmaker. His work explores interiority, the limits of the body, and the democracy of language. When he isn’t in his studio. You can usually find him training for powerlifting competitions or on the beach with his wife and dogs near their home on the Washington coast.

Andrew Helton is precise. This precision is not fragile. Its strength is born of rigorous closeness. Every endeavor he initiates is created with intention and thorough engagement. He is not afraid of exertion or difficulty; in fact, he relishes the uncomfortable challenges necessary for growth. Because of this, no question is left unexplored, whether he is training for a powerlifting competition, printmaking, editing a manuscript, creating a life with his equally talented wife, or writing poetry. His poetic subtleties are the elemental stuff the Earth is made of: rooted in equal parts encyclopedic knowledge and profound compassion. His keen sensitivity, intuition, and imagination direct him time and again towards the inexpressible, that which lies beyond words. His integrity drives him, not only to personally experience all of everything but to create a new space for the rest of us to inhabit as well, as witness and witnessed, and we are better for it.