Summoning Summer: Writing Its Wonders and Woes in Poetry
Ah Summertime! Vacation. Family celebrations. Oceans and swimming pools. Earth erupting with gardens. Watermelon juice leaking onto redwood tables. Siestas in the sweet gum shade. Sun rearing high overhead, Apollo’s horses driven by an August- bored teen. Camden Yards little-league dreams. But then there are also Thunderstorms, Mosquitoes, Complaining Kids, and Itching Sunburn. Summer’s rich and deep associations, especially those never-ending days of childhood summers, plead for poems from us. In this program, poet and educator Kitty Yanson invites us to explore the archetype of summer with its many themes and symbolisms. Then we’ll look at some famous poems about summer, paying particular attention to the concrete images that carry meaning and feeling to the reader. Through guided journaling and creative prompts, we will generate ideas and begin crafting poems. As a group, we will collaborate on a communal haiku-series hymn to summer and then create our own unique personal summer manifesto. We are delighted to welcome Kitty back to the Well for her second poetry workshop! No prior writing experience is needed. Just bring a notebook, a pencil, and a willingness to cast few spells summoning this season of heart and memory.
DATE: Saturday, June 6, 2026
TIME: 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM
COST: Please choose the ticket option that works best for you!
LOCATION: Well for the Journey - 120 W. Seminary Ave, Lutherville-Timonium, MD 21093
IMPORTANT: You will receive an email from programming@wellforthejourney.org at least 24 hours in advance of the start of your program. If you are unable to find the email, please check your SPAM or JUNK email folders. This email will include details to help you prepare for your program including any pertinent handouts, location information, and the ZOOM link for online programs. Please be sure you have received and read this email a minimum of 24 hours in advance of the start of the program. Thank you!
FACILITATOR: Kitty Yanson
FACILITATOR BIO: Old family stories told about one as a child have the resonance of myth. One does not know how much is actual truth and how much to explain a forming personality or to illustrate the values of one’s family. Nevertheless, there is one about me: walking back from my grandmother’s house, the four-year-old me asked my father, “Where do thoughts go when you stop thinking them?” My fate was sealed: I became the family philosopher whether I wanted to live it out or not (which I kind of did). So I grew up studying art and stories and my own inner life and the tickings of peoples’ minds. Through it all, I’m still wondering where thoughts go when you stop thinking them. I recently retired from a 35-year career as an English teacher at Mercy High School where I taught creative writing, journalism, English, and theatre. My formal education includes a BA in English Literature from Mt. St. Agnes College and a MS in Professional Writing, Imaginative Concentration from Towson University. Prior to that I worked at the Baltimore Theatre Project and also free-lanced gardening and catering. While teaching, I found that the creativities required for teaching and for writing really come from about the same place; retirement has happily diverted the channel back into writing and my new love, painting. I have also been a member of one of Well for the Journey’s Group Spiritual Direction gatherings and previously led a program about exploring dream imagery with a Jungian lens.