Grounded Poetry: Sensitivity to Setting
Whether it’s the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a neglected backyard garden, or the landscape of memory itself, every place holds a story. In poetry, setting is never just a backdrop—it can reveal longing, loss, joy, identity, and what matters most. Sometimes, paying close attention to a place can also help us notice what is sacred within it—and within ourselves.
Together, we’ll explore how Jewish poets including Grace Paley, Louise Glück, and Gerald Stern use vivid details of time and place to create unforgettable poems. We’ll see how setting can deepen emotion, illuminate character, and invite us into a richer relationship with the world around us.
Through close reading, discussion, and a guided writing exercise inspired by former U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser’s “Abandoned Farmhouse,” you’ll discover how paying close attention to place can unlock surprising insights about your poem’s speaker—and yourself. Whether you’re writing about a sacred landscape, a childhood home, or an ordinary corner of your everyday life, you’ll leave with new tools for creating poems that are rich, grounded, and alive—and perhaps with a renewed sense of the holiness that can be found in the places we inhabit.
All sessions will be recorded and sent to participants. We encourage live attendance for you to get the most out of the experience.
Susan Comninos is the author of a recent book of poems, “Out of Nowhere” (SFA Press/Texas A&M, 2022). Her individual poems have appeared in the Harvard Review Online, Rattle, The Common, Prairie Schooner and North American Review, among others. She’s taught writing to undergraduates at Siena College, The College of St. Rose, and SUNY Albany, as well as adults in the community. At present, she serves as poetry editor of Judith magazine and is at work on a second collection of poems, “Wild Joy of Receiving.” The title poem, published by The Baltimore Review, is forthcoming this spring in the anthology “The Color Wheel” (Terrapin Books, 2026).
