Song of Myself (after Whitman) with Eileen Casey
Info
Date: November 22, 2025
Time: 10.00am - 3.00pm
Duration: 4 hours
Level: Intermediate | Beginner |
Cost: €100 (€90 Members)
This course will take place in-person at the Irish Writers Centre on Saturday (4 hours + one hour for lunch)
Course Summary
Finding creative joy while exploring authentic self.
‘Song of Myself’ aims to nurture playful, creative engagement, helping to strengthen the value of reliving, reconnecting and celebrating authentic experience. There are many demands on an individual, so many ‘selves’ slotted into different roles. It’s easy to forget and remain true to what makes each of us truly authentic and unique. Building bridges between light and shade, between past and future serves as important elements in recognising and leaving ‘meantime’ situations behind.
There will be a one-hour break for lunch.
Course Outline
Timings: 10-12am, with a break for lunch and then 1-3pm
Drawing on Sarah Ban Breathnach’s Journal of the Authentic Self, participants are inspired to map their own unique creative journey.
Activities include: Chakra balancing, colour engagement, mindfulness, exploring tealeaf landscapes, collagé creation and free writing prompts.
The beauty of collage is that it brings together all kinds of sensory features i.e. fabric, words (cut and paste, original prose or poetry) colour, photography etc.
Throughout the morning and afternoon sessions, in a relaxed environment, opportunity to enjoy free writing and collagé remain an integral part of the course.
Participants are asked to bring their own scissors for the collage, all else will be provided.
Course Outcomes
Playful engagement in advance of the blank page helps de-clutter the mind and promote optimum mental health. Collagé is a visual interpretation of authentic self. Minimal material requirements apply.
Collage image below by Maeve Errity
“To look on is enough in the business of love” says Patrick Kavanagh and Eileen Casey’s gaze is deeply loving and clear eyed. She gives us glimpses of her life and the lives of her family and community framed with reverence for the natural world,” – Paula Meehan (Berries for Singing Birds, Arlen House).
Biography
Eileen Casey is a poet, fiction writer and journalist. Author of seven poetry collections (Arlen House, New Island, Altents), her work is widely published to include anthologies by Faber & Faber, Dedalus, Crannog, Salmon, The Nordic Irish Studies Journal, Poetry Ireland, Sunday Miscellany, among other outlets. Awards include: Hennessy (Emerging) Fiction, The Oliver Goldsmith International Poetry Prize and a Katherine and Patrick Kavanagh Poetry Fellowship, among others.
