The Birds, Bees and All Those Trees: Maine Poets Write about the Natural World (Reading & Discussing Maine Poets)

A 4-week Zoom collaboration course with Penobscot Valley Senior College and Belfast Senior College

This course will be recorded and shared to view for 2 weeks.

Poems, like all writing, provide lenses through which readers can "see" subjects through the eyes of their authors. The concept of lenses will be the major theme of this course. Poets who write about the natural world in Maine may inspire us to see the familiar from a different angle or discover aspects we hadn't thought of before--i.e., to alter our own lenses. All of them will help us understand the natural world more perceptively while coming to appreciate the power of their language. Participants are not expected to be experienced readers of poetry. If you find yourself thinking, "Gee, I hadn't thought of it that way before," the course will have been a success.

A week or so before the first class meeting, participants will be emailed a packet of poems in an attached Word file that will be the basis for our explorations and discussions. Please print out the packet so you will have the poems handy to consult before and during each class. If printing is not feasible for you, contact me immediately at judyhak@maine.edu.

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Instructor: Judy Hakola

After over 50 years, Judy Hakola has finally retired from the University of Maine English Department--but obviously not from teaching. At UMaine, she taught Maine literature courses both online and in regular classrooms and has given presentations on Maine writers in many formats all over the state, including for both PVSC and Down East Senior College in Ellsworth. Her courses are quite informal and she encourages students to be active participants through both their questions and their opinions.

Photo credit: John Pickering, Orono