Joseph Coleman, longtime poet and Registered Maine Guide, will lead a poetry workshop at Wolfe’s Neck Center in April. Contributed / Joseph Coleman

Joseph Coleman has a colorful collection of skills and pursuits among his professional palette. He was a consultant in the apparel industry for many years, now he leads fly fishing trips in northern and coastal Maine, holds the certificate of Registered Maine Guide, and writes poetry.

As a seasoned poet, Coleman’s work has been published in the New Yorker and Esquire. In 2022, Coleman got his master of fine arts in creative writing with a focus in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. During his graduate work, he taught at the Sarah Lawrence Writing Institute, Hunter College and a youth writing program in the Bronx for underprivileged students.

Starting in early April, he will continue his writing and poetry teaching, leading an eight-week course at the Wolfe’s Neck Center in Freeport called “Poetry Unplugged.” The course, he says, will celebrate the craft of poetry, cultivating a creative environment where students can develop their own skills and learn from their peers.

Coleman explained that the workshop is designed with a generative model. Each class will begin with a prompt or discussion of a reading, then students will produce work to be shared in a critique. The poetry will also follow an important rule: all writing will be done off-screen. Each student will receive a typewriter that, as he explains, will let students focus on writing without the clawing algorithms and sway of the internet.

“The only way I could possibly see a person writing poetry with zero influence from Google or some other search engine is to actually just write it down on paper,” he explained.

Coleman said that a major inspiration for the course lies in resisting software and artificial intelligence, like ChatGPT, generating writing and poetry – a craft which has always been a deeply human practice, allowing us to traverse the emotional, psychological and physical complexities of our world. He notes that at major events throughout history and life, such as presidential elections or funerals, we turn to poetry to inspire and cut to the core of a special moment.

“It’s an important craft to try to protect from artificial intelligence. It documents our time. It documents us as human beings,” he expressed. “(This class) is a way to remind people that it is human beings that create poetry, not machines.”

The course will also lean on Coleman’s skills as a Registered Maine Guide. He plans to take students out into the woods so that they can get comfortable with a compass and absorb creativity from nature in their poetry practice.

The class will meet once a week for three hours, starting on April 2, and is capped at eight students total.

Poetry Unplugged costs $200. A sliding scale and scholarships are available to those who need financial assistance, and all proceeds go toward supporting the organization and its mission. To sign up for the course, visit Wolfe’s Neck Center’s workshop page at wolfesneck.org/learn for information on registration.

Editor’s note: This story was updated on March 17 to reflect a price change.