Wyatt Townley is Poet Laureate of Kansas Emerita and she’s on a mission:  to bring people home to poetry, and poetry home to people. For decades she has given programs regionally and nationally at conventions, conferences, book fairs, state fairs, libraries, universities, museums, retirement centers, and schools. During her term as state poet laureate, she travelled 10,000 miles through Kansas’s far-flung beauty and kind people, through 80mph winds in Greensburg and blizzards in Liberal. She read to a dog and slept in a silo. It was all poetry, all the way down.

Wyatt has published with little presses and big, nationally and internationally. Five of her seven books are poetry: Making the Turn (forthcoming this year), Rewriting the Body, The Breathing Field, Perfectly Normal, and The Afterlives of Trees. Her work has been read on NPR, featured in “American Life in Poetry,” and published in journals ranging from New Letters to Newsweek, North American Review to Paris Review, Yoga Journal to Scientific American. Commissioned poems hang in the Johnson County Library and the Space Telescope Science Institute Library, home of the Hubble.

Formerly a dancer, Wyatt earned her BFA in Dance from the State University of New York (Purchase) and the Presidential Award, created in her honor, for a Senior Thesis in poetry. For years, she directed her own dance company in New York. To recover from a serious dance injury—a broken neck—Wyatt developed and still teaches her own yoga system, Yoganetics, now practiced on six continents. Her kinetic practice of poetry and her poetic practice of yoga have fused into a single impulse—poetry in motion. Though tall, she folds well.

Wyatt gives readings, talks, classes, and workshops regionally and nationally. Adapting to the needs of the sponsor, she offers educational activities in combination with programs for all ages and all levels:

• Themed Poetry Readings & Programs (See Community Activity Info.)
• Writing Classes & Workshops (See Educational Activity Info.)
• Poetry in Motion & Backsavers for Writers Workshops (See Educational Activity Info.)

Generally, Wyatt offers one, two, or as many as three events in one day—a reading, a class, a workshop, or whatever combination best suits your needs.

• Fees are flexible, depending on your needs and your organization. Generally, $500-$1000 for one event; then the price divides in half: $250-$500 for second event; then half again: $125-$250 for the third.
• Gas, per diem, and lodging for bookings 85+ miles from Shawnee Mission.

Poetry is contagious! In my travels around Kansas, I find that people are thirsty to talk about important things. Readings, programs, and keynote addresses are offered singly or with other services. Here are three:

[NEW] Making the Turn
Life has many turning points, through love and illness, trauma and ecstasy. The terrain can be tricky. Wyatt explores life’s sometimes sharp and hairpin curves in her own and others’ poems. Trained by the curve, leaving becomes returning, turning away becomes turning around, and revolution becomes revelation.

Body as Poem
Whitman said, “Your very flesh shall be a great poem…in every motion and joint.” We rewrite that poem with each breath. Formerly a dancer and a teacher of yoga for decades, Wyatt explores poetry and the body as “place”—as our mobile home—room by room, from trauma to transcendence. She will read from her work and others on the theme.

Coming Home to Poetry
Home—what is it, where is it, and how does it intersect with poetry? “Poetry is a place,” Wyatt affirms, “a place we can return to in all kinds of weather. Its porchlight is always on.” She explores “home” through her own and others’ poems. Like home, this program is always renewing itself with new work and ideas. 

Technical Requirements: (Readings & Programs):

• Depending on the space, a microphone/sound system
• 6ꞌ table for book sales/signing [set up near entrance to event space]
• 2 chairs [with signing table]
• Additional small side table upfront by Wyatt’s music stand

Email me, and we’ll work it out: [email protected]. Flexibility is my middle name.

Workshops: All workshops are appropriate for beginners as well as veteran writers. Handouts are given in each workshop, designed to support participants beyond the immediate experience.

Making the Turn (60 minutes—2 hours)

Life is full of turning points—little and big, public and private. Some are celebrated and recognized: graduations, promotions, and weddings. Others are quiet and private—puberty, heartbreak, and epiphany. We’ll focus on a particular turn in your life that was significant to you, and explore it in a poem: what it felt like, what it meant (or did not mean), how it turned out.

Letters from Home: Writing Sensory Poetry (2 hours)

Experience the body as a “place,” not an object—a place you can call home and write from. Sharpening the five senses will breathe life onto the page and anchor the reader there with you. In this interactive mind/body session, we’ll do sensory writing and point-of-view experiments toward the goal of creating fresh, original poetry from a new angle.

HomeWords: Little Poems, Big Picture (60 minutes)

Let’s make ourselves at home on the page. Together we’ll explore the notion of “home” from micro to macro: body, house, land, sky. Beginners through professionals welcome.

And now for something completely different: Wyatt offers poetry in motion workshops in tandem with writing presentations—appropriate for beginners and the perfect punctuation in a day of sitting. With over 40 years of teaching experience, Wyatt is recognized at the highest level by Yoga Alliance, the national registry of yoga teachers.

Backsavers for Writers (60 minutes)

Hemingway finally had to write standing up. Writers (like pianists) bend over a keyboard for hours. Then we wonder why our backs hurt! If your spine is turning into a question mark, come to this workshop for practical hands-on tips on alignment and breathing. Simple suggestions, stretches, and stress-busters can transform life in your chair.

Poetry in Motion: Smart Yoga for Bodies in Transition (60-90 minutes)

The body has been with us since birth and goes everywhere with us, yet many of us don’t feel at home in it. Whatever your age or size, however stiff or flexible, this inside-out approach to yoga starts exactly where you are and moves you, breath by breath and image by image, from tension to spaciousness.

Poets in particular connect with Wyatt’s system of Yoganetics. Metaphor and figurative language are unsurpassed in demonstrating anatomical principles. Path Breathing shifts the body into a poetic state where we can free-associate and access our innate creativity. Books and videos are available to support participants beyond the workshop, on and off the mat.

Technical Requirements (Workshops)

• Writing Workshops: Six-foot tables connected around a room in a circle shape, 2 chairs behind each table, a clipboard with paper and pencil at each place.  (Wyatt needs one 6’ table for herself in the circle, and will supply her own easel and whiteboard.)  Also: a 6’ table with chair by door for nametags, handouts, and books.
• Backsaver Workshop: a room with staggered straight chairs spaced with 2-3 feet of space between them (more space is better).
• Poetry in Motion Workshop: a large carpeted room, cleared of furniture and vacuumed, ideally with a thermostat and lights we can dim. Wyatt will need a chair and table centered at the front of room.

Email me, and we’ll work it out: [email protected]. Flexibility is my middle name.