The Hummingbird Podcast
by Catherine Graham and Jessica OutramTwo friends use poetry to chat about creativity, process, and the mysteries of life. Catherine Graham is an award-winning writer and creative writing teacher living in Toronto. Jessica Outram is a Métis writer and educator living in Peterborough. Visit https://thehummingbirdpodcast.com/ New episode every two weeks!
Copyright: Catherine Graham and Jessica Outram
Episodes
Art & Inspiration
29m · PublishedWe talk about art as inspiration and connection. We share stories about visiting art galleries and our powerful one-on-one experiences with art. Catherine shares two poems that connect to two book covers “Troll Was No Monster” (Winterkill)and “Cancer in the Celery Forest” (The Celery Forest).Jessica shares her poem “Windblown Group of Seven,” inspired by a sketch by Tom Thompson of a landscape she knows and loves dearly.
Craft
36m · PublishedWe explore what this word means to us as creators, from the silly to the serious. Plus the role of intuition, practice and inner knowing. Jessica shares her poem “On Deciding on Learning to Write” and talks about her experience with writing workshops. Catherine shares two poems that bookend her writing journey: “Pupa” the title poem from her first book and “Part of the Song Where the Dead Come From” from her latest book,Put Flowers Around Us and Pretend We’re Dead: New and Selected Poems.
Ideas
31m · PublishedBeginning ideas, sustaining ideas, consuming ideas—how as creators do we relate to this word? Jessica shares her poem “The Crossing of Candle Eyes” and Catherine shares three short poems inspired by her mother: “The Red Element” “It’s Only Her Piano Face” and “ My Suburban Forest.”
Holding On & Letting Go
29m · PublishedWhile staying in to rest and heal what occupies our mind and imagination? What does it mean to “clean house”? How do we know what to hold on to and when to let go? We explore these things in dialogue and in poetry. Jessica shares two poems: “Leaving Home” and “Shine Firefly” and Catherine shares her poems “Freckle” and “Father’s Tattoo.”
Winter & Self Care
30m · PublishedWriting, resting, going inward, the importance of self-care. Letting go. Balance. Writing through dark times. Balancing our creative life with teaching. Valuing our own rhythm. Catherine reads an excerpt from her memoirAether: An Out-of-Body Lyricand Jessica reads an excerpt from a book about Métis beadwork.
Winter, Dreams and Sleep
31m · PublishedWhat might our dreams teach us? Catherine shares her poem from the Niagara Falls Poetry Project “The Water Draws.” Jessica shares her poem “When.” Plus sleep habits, reading habits and Raymond Carver’s poem “Late Fragment.”
Content, Craft, & Communication
27m · PublishedHow do you know you are a writer? Is it possible to find poetry in the everyday? What’s it like to share raw work? What might we do with our dream lines? Catherine shares her poem “Last Shadow” and Jessica shares a new poem “Robin Takes a Break.”
Learning is Change
32m · PublishedWhat assists us when we’re learning? What happens when we’re open and curious? Learning isn’t always easy and the unknown is our biggest teacher. Yet, how as writers do we share what we’ve learned? And what does the Medicine Wheel teach us? Catherine shares her poem “The Girl without Birds at the Top of the Stairs” and Jessica shares her poem “To Begin Again.”
What is it to be inspired?
30m · PublishedThis question leads us to talk about many things including P.K. Page, what it’s like to be a highly sensitive child, whether we’d like the gift of invisibility or mind control, the power of dreams, when dreams turn to visions and when visions turn to poems. Catherine shares her poem “The Bullied” and Jessica shares her poem “How Old Is Your Spirit.”
Try Everything
30m · PublishedWhat happens when we move from word to image? Catherine talks about her experience leading a creative problem-solving workshop and how the images that appear know more than we do. What happens when we let go of control? Jessica talks about what her books have to say to her (yes, they do know where they want to be in her new home!). She also shares her experience braiding sweetgrass and the poem it inspired. We end our chat with Catherine’s poem on metamorphosis: “Imago.”
The Hummingbird Podcast has 87 episodes in total of non- explicit content. Total playtime is 49:54:21. The language of the podcast is English. This podcast has been added on August 8th 2022. It might contain more episodes than the ones shown here. It was last updated on May 12th, 2024 07:40.