Innovation Network

Joyce Wycoff
Co-founder, InnovationNetwork
Faculty Member

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Joyce Wycoff’s Poetry

Mid-Life Creativity

Political Poetry
Printable Poems and Images
Creativity through Poetry – Keynotes and Workshops for organizations

Sometimes new gifts show up at the most unexpected time. For me, something happened when I turned 50. Something other than more gray hairs and gravity playing its games on my body. Like a pre-programmed clock, I found myself in a new space, a new phase of life, a new mindset. Something within me wanted to see the light of day, and it was naggingly insistent that I let it out.

Following that persistent nudging, I began a journey of exploration that took me to a place I never expected to see … my own creativity. For years I told people, “Everyone is creative,” while inwardly believing I was the exception to the rule. This belief began to crack while I was at a writing workshop with Natalie Goldberg in Taos, New Mexico. Suddenly poetry began to appear. This was not something I wanted or even welcomed as shown by one of the poems that showed up that week:

I Don’t Write Poetry

I am a practical person.
I don’t write poetry.

I have bills to pay.
I don’t write poetry.

I have people to impress.
I don’t write poetry.

So what is this stuff oozing up
From the cracks in my life in these Taos mountains?
This stuff that demands its space on the page
This stuff that will pay no bills, impress no people.

Since that workshop several years ago, poetry has become a central part of my life and has encouraged me to explore other avenues of creativity such as painting and photography. Recently I was in a workshop with a woman who was an Episcopal priest and a Sufi master of The Way. She said something that really struck me, “Every gift carries with it a need, for example writers need readers.” I realized the truth of that and that this new poet needs listeners and friends who want to talk about poetry.

Political Poetry

Recipe for Ending War (.pdf format)
Clive Jackson (.pdf format)
The Lonely Me (.pdf format)
Numbers -- a tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. (printable)
Doing Without (.pdf format)

Printable Poems and Images

Here are some examples of poetry and artwork:

Cycle of Creativity (printable)
Maybe Later (printable)
At the Cross Roads Café (printable)
A Moment in Spring (printable)
Two Poems: My Words & It’s My Choice (printable)

Creativity through Poetry – Keynotes and Workshops for organizations

Poetry is one of our oldest and most powerful forms of communication. Writing and listening to poetry engages not only the whole mind but the entire person … mind, heart, body and spirit. After almost becoming a lost art, poetry is currently becoming one of the most popular and democratic forms of art and expression. Poetry readings and performances are flowering around the world.

Joyce Wycoff is now available for keynotes speeches and workshops which link poetry to personal and organizational development. These fun, interactive sessions teach people how to free their own poet and become more powerful communicators even in everyday life. For more information about these sessions, please contact Joyce Wycoff at staff@thinksmart.com or call 870-656-4141.