Hello! The official town poet has gone South for the winter, and left a recommendation that I take over her job as the Poetry Workshop Leader for our annual Writer's Conference. Too flattered to say anything but "Why,I'd be honored!", I am now racking my brain to come up with a focus for the workshop. My question is: Has anyone here at this forum taken/conducted a Poetry Workshop in the past? If so, what do you feel is the most valuable thing you took away from the class? If you were to attend a workshop in poetry tomorrow, what would you hope the facilitator would speak on? The workshop is an hour long, and could have anywhere from 10 to 30 participants.
I am VERY grateful for any suggestions/experiences/links that would help me conduct an exciting, fun-filled poetry class. Thanks in advance!!

Not having run a workshop, but having been a sometimes unwilling participant in such many times I make these few suggestions.

1. If you're going to get people to write, have a theme. "What do I write about?", would be the worst thing you would want to hear.

2. Get them involved doing something as early in the hour as is humanly possible. Busy hands (and minds) are happy hands (and minds).

3. Don't get too technical. If most of your participants are beginners, gear your presentation to them. Find out if possible from people who are coming to the presentation how much experience they have and make your activities accordingly.

Les

This is a p.s. to the above message.

Choose a broad theme, such as nature, travel, people,or family. Something which all participants would have knowledge about and be able to write about without your explanation.

Or get a couple of very well written poems and ask them to write an answer to them. Preferably in the same style. But make sure then, that you have different types of poems to choose from (so that no one is forced to choose a form they absolutely hate) and get a bit of background information on the different forms.

Two things I like about this method (I had to do it myself once): you don't get stuck on the subject to write about and you find out that what seems easy is not so easy at all, which gives you a lot more respect for poetry on the whole. And of course, when you are doing this, you learn a lot about the form you are trying to write.

Don't forget to let us know what you did and how it went! Good luck.

If you only have an hour, you won't be doing more than providing a brief overview, that is certainly not enough time to develop the theme for any technical aspect of poetry writing.

Stick to something you know and enjoy. If you want a lot of participation, maybe choose something like how you find the time to write and do everything else in life and they will surely jump in.

Or something for those looking to get their work in print. How to submit their work to editors. Your own experience in getting work published. Believe me, everyone is interested in getting published!

I can't agree with Les and Desi about getting them to write. By the time you open and close the hour long session, I really doubt there would be enough time to produce a poem of any merit.

For the fun thing, write a first line for a poem, fold the paper and have them each add a line and fold and pass on.

I think Chesil has a point. When I had that workshop, we had two hours, and still not enough. Maybe you can persuade people to stay longer?

What is the meaning of the Whitman poem facing west from californias shores.

I think he's saying that the population of the country was headed in that direction, and so was he.

Les

It has to do with the nature of humanity to explore and want to find out what's out there. If you're facing west on a California beach, you've gotten to the end of a continent, but the narrator wants to keep going, even though he's forgotten what he's looking for.

pam

Facing West From California's Shores
by: Walt Whitman

FACING west, from California's shores,
Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,
I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity, the
land of migrations, look afar,
Look off the shores of my Western Sea--the circle almost circled;
For, starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere,
From Asia--from the north--from the God, the sage, and the hero,
From the south--from the flowery peninsulas, and the spice islands;
Long having wander'd since--round the earth having wander'd,
Now I face home again--very pleas'd and joyous;
(But where is what I started for, so long ago?
And why is it yet unfound?)

My appologies Erik. Thank you Pam, obviously this is not the poem I thought it was.

Les

It's that whole Horatio Alger thing "Go West, young man!'

pam

Horace Greely

I would go with a discussion of one of the fixed forms. Haiku everyone likes, but could be old hat to this group. Villanelles would take a week instead of an hour. Sonnets, yeah, but they want more time as well. Not knowing much about the group's make up, surely it would be safe to cover limericks, I venture.

Lots of history to be found, many clever examples of the form, some side-splittingly hilarious. Rigid rules that must be meticulously followed, or the critical purists gleefully rip you to shreds, using the proper form, as a further insult.

And, a skill that every poet, even purveyors of prose, should have. Auden, for example, wrote some classics. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote the often-quoted-as anonymous 'hen reward Beacher' one. Many others, of course.

To make matters more delicious, no one has yet written an limerick that satisfactorily explains how to write a limerick! You can search around the net for them easily, but all I have read leave a lot to be desired. A good place to start is, [limericks.org] />
I tried one myself, but I doubt any would learn to write one simply by studying it, either (the idea is stolen from Lewis Carroll's Poeta Fit Non Nascitur):

"Oh, How shall I write my first lim?
I would learn to write verses with vim;
You told me one time,
'To have wit is sublime.'
Won't you, Sir, give me one paradigm?"

The graybeard looked up and was glad
When he heard the bold words from the lad,
'True, humdrum he's not,
Nor dawdles a lot;
I suppose I could teach him a tad.'

"You would learn of the verse that's melodic,
Before you've had schooling methodic?
I can see you're no fool,
There is only one rule:
You must first learn to be a quixotic.

"A limerick's best writ from the back,
It's there you will put your wise crack;
Make this line the first
That you'll write in your thirst
To ensure you are on the right track.

"It will always consist of three feet,
With a 'Night before Christmas'-like beat;
You can think of this verse
If your meter sounds worse
Than the caterwaul calls from the street.

"Now the last you have got in the bag,
Use the first four to trigger the gag:
One & two rhyme with five,
Three & four both will strive
To echo each other like tag.

"Recalling the feet of the final ..."
He mused, while massaging his rhinal,
"Though line three and line four
Have dimeter score,
The rest are decidedly trinal."

"So if speaking of pies made of mutton,
We could say they are crafted from cuttin'
The fleecy flock's dreams
To silence their screams
And feed them to Lecter, the Glutton?"

"Why, yes," said the elderly gent,
"That example is just what I meant."

I have been toying with the following logic lately. Let me know if it is too simplified:

A limerick has five lines, using only two rhymes. Lines 1, 3 and 5 all have the first rhyme sound, and consist of three feet. Lines 3 and 4 use the other, and have only two feet.

The three longer lines consist of one iamb, and two anapests. The two shorter ones have one iamb and one anapest. To wit:

A little-known actor named Bob,
Who sought an unusual job,
Auditioned and stole
The choice title role,
And worked in the movie: "The Blob."
- Cybergeezer

One is allowed to insert one syllable at the beginning of each line, and to add trailing syllables at the end. That is, every line could be completely anapestic, with trailing syllables permitted.

I was once scanning a copy of a rhyming dictionary in the library, and saw it stated that limericks are made up of amphibrachs! That was the first I had ever seen of such a claim, but I determined to find out if they could be so written. I discovered they could not:

In amphibrachs limericks couldn't
Be written, so surely I shouldn't
Attempt to compose one,
And God only knows one
Might sound pretty strange, so I wouldn't.

The astute will note that these lines fit the iamb + anapest rules, with the addition of one trailing syllable at the end of each line.

More than an hour's coverage you say? Probably so. Maybe go with haiku then, and get them each to write one that has (any) consistent meter, and at least one rhyme.

Good luck!

i need mad help on Edmunds Spensers poem... "trust not the treason" i have to compare it and Macbeth on Ambition and Troubled Conscience....

Here is an English-to-English translation I found, if that is any help:

Trust not the treason of those smiling looks,
until ye have their guileful trains well tried:
for they are like but unto golden hooks,
that from the foolish fish their baits do hide:
So she with flattering smiles weak hearts doth guide,
unto her love, and tempt to their decay,
whom being caught she kills with cruel pride,
and feeds at pleasure on the wretched prey:
Yet even whilst her bloody hands them slay,
her eyes look lovely and upon them smile:
that they take pleasure in her cruel play,
and dying do them selves of pain beguile.
O mighty charm which makes men love their bane,
and think they die with pleasure, live with pain.


Lots of 'errors' in construction, what with 'do' and 'doth' all over the place. Worst line: 'Yet even whilst her bloody hands them slay', I would think.

Thanks! I'd been reading some Alger lately, and the names got mixed in my poor excuse for a brain.

pam

I want to know more about this 'official town poet' job. Does it pay well? Can we apply or is it by selection?

pam