“Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.”
-Lucille Clifton
Register by April 23rd at 5 pm to enjoy flexible learning with live support from Dr. Dave and Erin
“Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.”
-Lucille Clifton
The Spark & Stitch Family Poetry Project offers you the chance to have a personalized live session with partner poet Diver Van Avery. Let a poet create words that provide a powerful and creative mirror of your family’s experiences.
“Parenting during a pandemic has not only been isolating, it felt truly invisible at times – marked by wildly mundane yet totally exhausting juggling acts day after day. There are just fewer opportunities to share both the losses we’ve experienced and the strengths and delights of our little family systems. Poetry creates evidence of where we have been together and who we are to each other.”
– Erin Walsh
“I really didn’t know what to expect and to be honest I was a little nervous. But the conversation flowed and by the time Diver read us our poem on the phone we were all crying.”
– Emily Sturm
You deserve more than just information and strategies – you also need experiences that honor who you are and create opportunities for reflection, meaning-making, and connection.
Neuroscience has demonstrated over and over again that we human beings are powered by story and emotion as much as cognition. This is why we are thrilled to be able to launch the Family Poetry Project as we mark a full year of parenting during a pandemic.
There is no simple way to feel about all we have lived through, individually, as families, and as a collective. Undoubtedly, we have been impacted in profound ways. We want to offer you the chance to commission a session with founding Spark & Stitch collaborator and partner poet Diver Van Avery to talk about you and your loved ones, what you have struggled with and been grateful for, what you have lost and what you have learned, what you done and who you have become.
This month marks a year of living through a global health crisis and long overdue racial reckoning. We each have our own identities, vulnerabilities, strengths, and stories. We are also tired. In our own exhaustion, letting someone else be witness and put words to what we’ve done together is an incredible gift. Commission a poem…
To honor yourself, your family, your partner, your children, your loved ones.
To make meaning.
To pause for reflection.
To have a record of this time.
To receive a gift that is completely personal, completely yours, and completely unique.
Your typed out poem will be mailed to you. You can frame it, put in on your refrigerator, send it to the person you write it for, or keep it in a secret place to pull out when you need it the most.
“I’ve been writing poems for people for over ten years. It would be an honor to write one for your family.”
-Diver Van Avery, Spark & Stitch Partner Poet