A new blog post by Dylan Tweney, Certified Listener Poet, Cohort 11
In a recent blog post, CLP alum Dylan Tweney shares a story of creative exchange with their friend, Janne-Pekka (JP) Manninen, a Finnish journalist and photographer. Invited to respond to JP’s images through poetry, Dylan was surprised and delighted when JP asked for a Listener Poet session as part of their collaboration.
Their conversation led to the poem, “Portrait of the Photographer,” which Dylan wrote for JP in response to his recent portrait work. Dylan writes:
“This summer, my friend Janne-Pekka Manninen, a Finnish journalist and photographer, began a three-month artist’s residency in Berlin. He invited me to follow along with his process as a sort of satellite contributor. Neither of us really knew what this collaboration would mean, except that he was inviting me to respond to his photography with poetry or writing.
JP surprised me by asking if I would do a Listener Poet session for him. Of course I was delighted by this request: as a newly certified Listener Poet, I’m eager to share this practice with others. So we spent half an hour one morning talking about his approach to photography, and in particular one portrait session he’d done recently in Berlin. After that, I spent a couple of days letting my notes steep, and then I drafted a poem for him, “Portrait of the Photographer.””
Dylan Tweney, Certified Listener Poet, Cohort 11 Summer 2025