Resting the Mindland

A Poetry Pharmacy online poetry course & feedback 
with Poet Becky Cherriman

suitable for anyone who wants to allow a little more poetry and stillness into their life.

It can be difficult to find fallowness in our busy lives. Attention restoration theory emphasises the benefits of ‘soft fascination’ and ‘mind wandering.’ Psychoanalyst, Masud Khan, believed that stepping away from impulsive productivity to ‘lie fallow’ could aid creativity. Poets know better than most this need for quiet, reflective time, for the liminal space in which inspiration and imagination can spring. You will be guided through fallow experiences, be read to and given a creative toolkit of experimental prompts to try together and alone. Resting the Mindland is designed to explore how fallowness and activities that encourage soft fascination can help your poetry breathe and allow you to return to the world rejuvenated. 

The course includes:

• 5 x 2-hour online workshops on Zoom (2.2.26-2.3.26)
• an individualised 15 minute online ‘poetry reap’ with Becky where you receive feedback on a poem you have produced (9.3.26-15.3.26)
• 1 x 2-hour informal online reading in which you will be invited to share from the harvest of your poems (16.3.26)

About Becky

Becky Cherriman is a Poet, Creative Facilitator and Performer based in the north of England who has been named on lists such as the Women’s Poetry Competition, the Forward Prize and the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg. She has worked closely with communities and writers, facilitating creative writing workshops since 2003. From 2019-2024, she was a Teaching Fellow at the University of Leeds, leading the Lifelong Learning Centre’s Creative Writing Pathway. Single poems have been published by Seren, Mslexia, The North, TEXT, Bloodaxe, Well Versed, erbacce and Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings. Her work is collected in her 2016 Saboteur longlisted poetry pamphlet Echolocation (Mother’s Milk), and collection Empires of Clay (Cinnamon Press). Commissions include poetry on umbrellas, a textile and poetry collaboration about disabled mill workers for Leeds 2023 and being Writer-in-Residence for the Methodist Modern Art Collection as part of Bradford 2025. She also writes fiction and for theatre. She has been working with the concept of fallowness since 2022.  Under the mentorship of Kerri ní Dochartaigh, she is currently working on a poetic memoir for which she was awarded a Developing Your Creative Practice grant by Arts Council England. She has been working with the concept of fallowness and creativity since 2022, and finds her own in poetry, woodland walks, cold water dips and cloud-gazing.

Course Outline

Session 1: 2.2.26 Preparing the Ground
The course begins at Imbolc, the festival that honours Brigid, the Celtic goddess of poetry. We will start with a practical and relaxing introduction to the concept of fallowness, and a chance to try out tools from the fallow kit together.

Session 2: 9.2.26 Fallowness as manifest in quiet periods, moments and places in our lives
We will seek out what fallowness means to us, returning to some of our most peaceful moments and spots to discover what emerges.

Session 3: 16.2.26 The Turning of the Soil
A creative exploration of the richness of soil and natural cycles.

Session 4: 23.2.26 When fallowness fails or goes unrestrained
A different pace this week as we experiment with high energy writing techniques to play with this week's dramatic theme, and identify creative antidotes to the 'pesticidal' in our own lives.

Session 5: 2.3.26 How fallowness can create the conditions for change in the world and in our poems
Masud Khan saw fallowness as an anti-capitalist concept. Our poetry this week will imagine how social change could grow from fallow practices and the imagery we discover.

9.3.26-15.3.26: Fallow week with a chance to reap feedback from the tutor
This will involve a 15-minute 1-1 online feedback session on 1 or 2 poems you have written during the course. Please send the poems a week in advance and arrange a suitable time with Becky. 

Session 6: 16.3.26 Sharing the harvest
A reading of work produced during the course from those who want to share.

Two free tickets are offered to poets experiencing financial hardship on a first come, first served basis. We want to ensure that these tickets are for those in genuine need so please only book these if that condition applies to you. 

Please contact Becky at write@beckycherriman.com if you have any questions or want to share anything about yourself or your requirements in advance.