“Attention is the beginning of devotion”: Finding Poetry in the Silence

What does silence sound like? How can it help us give shape to poetry? Taking our cue from Mary Oliver’s well-known line about the primacy of attention, this workshop session will explore the work of several contemporary poets and how their approach to writing is grounded in attention to and immersion in our everyday world. We will consider the age-old idea of the poet needing to find his/her/their own voice over against the notion of allowing a poem to discover its own voice through us. The practice of mindfulness will be discussed as a key to unlocking memory, emotion, the five senses, artistic influences, etc. There will be prompt exercises during the session as well as a takeaway prompt given at the end.

Join M.F. Drummy in this upcoming workshop!

ABOUT THE PRESENTER

A Pushcart, Monarch, and Best of the Net nominee, M F Drummy is a disabled author whose poetry has appeared in dozens of publications, including Allium, Bloodroot, Book of Matches, January House, Meetinghouse, Penstricken, Rattle, and Thorn & Bloom. He has published two full-length collections of poetry: Perdido (2025, Main Street Rag Press) and Defensible Spaces (2026, Kelsay Books), which has been nominated for the Eric Hoffer and Dana Book Awards. Originally from Massachusetts, he and his way cool life partner continue to enjoy their retirement in the Colorado Rockies. He can be found at https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/m_f_drummy.

MEETING INFORMATION

This program will be presented at our upcoming PST meeting, to be held November 14, 2026, from 2:00-4:00 pm Eastern / 1:00-3:00 pm Central via Zoom. Members will be provided a link a few days prior. If you are interested in learning more about PST, check out our website. If you’d like to attend our meeting as a guest, contact us at poetrytennessee@gmail.com.