Fighting the Noise: Poetry for Mental Clarity and Calm
Free Virtual Writing Workshop

Join Lucky Jefferson and Corey Pressman for a free 1.5-hour virtual writing workshop designed for writers interested in combining poetry with science.

This workshop begins with Matthew Zapruder’s insight from Why Poetry that says poetry is “a place where … we can feel protected against the constant superficial distracting noise that is the pressure of the real.”

Public health research echoes this: chronic distraction and cognitive overload affect our well‑being, and practices that restore attention help us think clearly, regulate emotion, and stay connected to ourselves and others.

We’ll look at a simple idea from attention restoration research: our minds need moments of gentle focus to recover from constant noise. Poetry can offer that kind of focus. In this workshop, we’ll treat poetry as a small everyday practice that helps us think more clearly, feel more grounded, and stay connected to ourselves and others. In that sense, poetry becomes a quiet form of care, something that supports our well‑being and helps us move through the world with more agency and presence.

Participants will move between brief science‑informed framing and guided poetic practices that invite them to:
Write into the “pressure of the real” without needing to resolve it
Create poems that function as temporary places of protection

If poetry creates even temporary protection from distraction, then poetry is not decoration. It is infrastructure.

Date: Saturday, April 11th
Time: 1PM-2:30PM CT / 2-3:30PM ET
Location: Virtual (Zoom link provided upon registration)

Corey S. Pressman, a visual artist, poet, and health educator, invites readers to break free from rigid thinking, embrace uncertainty, and cultivate a vibrant mindset.

Contact the host of Fighting the Noise: Poetry for Mental Clarity and Calm