The forces in our lives are constantly colliding—sometimes in ways that work out well and sometimes in ways that don’t. This interview series is an exploration of what it can look like to work with the collisions, rather than against them. By digging into how humans and nature interact– from our relationships with other humans, to those with our non-human neighbors, to our relationship with ourselves to our relationship with the landbase–we can uncover how to best step fully into our role in the story of the world.
Today on the Ordinary Collisions Interview Series, I’m delighted to introduce you to poet Krissy Kludt. She writes about identity, the land, mystery, divine love, and the passage of time. Creator of Writing the Wild and Field Guides for the Way and author of A Good Way Through, she guides retreats and workshops on writing, creativity, and nature connection. She is an experienced public-school teacher and brings a holistic approach to learning to each experience she guides. Her first volume of poetry is forthcoming1. She works and plays in the East Bay outside of San Francisco, on the ancestral lands of the Ohlone and Miwok people, with her husband and two sons.
Heidi: Krissy, Thanks for being here with us today. I’ve enjoyed getting to know your work this past year (I think I discovered you when you posted something about reading Collisions of Earth and Sky - so thank you for that..) via social media and our sporadic text message exchanges, so I’m looking forward to taking a deeper dive today!
To start, I always ask the same question: What are two forces that are colliding in your life right now (or have in the not too distant past)?
Krissy: This year, I feel the persistent burn of creative fire. Call it my inner artist, call it desire, call it hope–I have to make. I have to take an idea and shape it and follow it to its end. I have to conjure, to manifest, to make something real.
Simultaneously, I feel the pressure of time. I went back to teaching public school last year; I have a home to maintain, a spouse and children, family and friends to connect with and care for. While I was teaching, my time to write and create was chopped into tiny pieces: from 8:07 to 10:13 on Mondays, for example, or after the bell rang for lunch on Fridays at 12:51. There was no spaciousness, no freedom. This put a very tight lid on the bubbling pot of my creative work.
Heidi. It can be so hard to find a balance, especially while having to adhere to a strict time schedule! How are you navigating the conditions this collision is creating? How does the dissonance created impact your choices?
Krissy: For one thing, I quit my teaching job. I feel conflicted about this–teaching is essential work more than ever, and I loved my students deeply. That said, the dissonance in this collision of limited time and deep desire became too much, and something had to give.
This year, I’ve become good (perhaps too good) at compartmentalizing: shifting, quickly, from one role to another, closing the door on my classroom and stepping back into my work as a writer or my family life. I learned to be efficient and productive, get everything I could out of the brief spaces I had for the creative work I love. But, compartmentalizing is not a great long-term tactic. The pressure of the responsibilities being ignored builds up.
I need to do some unlearning. I need to remember what it’s like to live with more freedom, integration, flexibility, and spaciousness–to lower my expectations for myself and find more room to breathe.
Heidi: I know you’re a committed educator, so I can imagine how tough a decision like that is! I admire your courage in taking that step. And unlearning! Yipes. Also hard, but what gift to yourself to open the door toward doing so.
What has this collision taught you about yourself? The world?
Krissy: The burn of creative energy combined with a tight lid on the time-pot brought new clarity to my desire: I have to do this work. I have to write, conjure, convene–and fulltime. I will regret it if I don’t try.
I’m learning that the world has space for my creativity, whether in the margins of my days or their fullness (if this becomes a career). The Earth herself needs me to say yes, to bloom. When I feel stuck, or like I can’t find the time, it’s often due to a lack of imagination–or it’s just been too long since I’ve been out in the hills.
Heidi: I’m reminded of Anaïs Nin’s words, “And the time came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” Here’s to the blooming.
What are you working on lately? I’d love to hear about a collision you explore in your latest project.
Krissy: The clarity I’ve found in the collisions of this season has led me to grow my year-long writing cohort, Writing the Wild, beyond what it has ever been before.
Writing the Wild exists in collision-spaces, edges, ecotones: at the edge of art and writing; the personal and the ecological; mind, heart, and body. We look to the Earth as our teacher, to our words for connection and healing. Our prompts consider the whole, embodied person and how we interact with the physical landscape, the more-than-human world, and the mystery that holds us.
Heidi: Writing the Wild just sounds so wonderful, and it sure is in alignment with so much of what I write about! Writing and wildness: what a lovely combination.
What else can you tell us about the new program as it gets going?
Krissy: Registration for Writing the Wild opens in August. Leading up to that registration, we’ll be hosting “Artist Sessions” on Instagram, with readings and writing prompts from our guests–we’d love to share those with you! You can join my email list to stay up-to-date.
Here’s some more official information about our journey:
Writing the Wild is a year-long writing journey guided by Krissy Kludt and J. Drew Lanham. The journey guides participants into creative release, learning with and from other writers and artists, and deepening intimacy with the Earth and our place upon it among human and non-human beings.
We do this through:
· mailed packages and prompts for writing, nature immersion, creative cross training, and playful rest
· a variety of Zoom gatherings: craft workshops with special guest teachers, Q&As with established writers and artists, seasonal contemplative workshops, and more.
This year’s guests will include: Haleh Liza Gafori, Kaitlin Curtice, Padraig O’Tuama, Camille Dungy, Maggie Smith, Elizabeth Bradfield, Derek Sheffield, Teddy Macker, Brian Turner, Dean Rader, Debra Magpie Earling, Michael Kleber Diggs, Matthew Shenoda, and more.2
Of Writing the Wild, past participants say:
“Thank you for being such a wonderful teacher and gentle nurturer of my soul. Through your prompts and emails, you have been the one who’s walked quietly into the woods, and waited for more of me to emerge.”
“The experience was one of reflection and growth, of meeting and sharing with others who walk the path of creativity and grow from sharing their insights and creations. I loved every aspect. It guided and supported me while leaving me free to wander and wonder at my own pace on my own path.”
Here’s to writing the wild, eh?
Have a collision you’d like to explore in this space? Send me an email at heidi@heidibarr.com.
I’ve had a preview, and it’s a life-giving, gorgeous collection, one that I’m so looking forward to having on my shelves when it’s out in the world!
Wow, what a line up! I might have to sign up myself.