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Previous Workshop Themes
‘Conflict’ – Exploring the development of War Poems from earliest times through to the present day. Then, taking an image from an offered selection, write two 'war poems' - one in the first person and another in the third person.
‘The Use of Contrast’ – Heightening our awareness of contrast
‘Is Love Surreal ?’ - Looking at some surreal love poems
‘Poetry and Prose’ - Exploring distinctions and varying definitions of poetry, prose and verse.
‘Observation and Beyond’ – Looking at poems relying purely on observation and then some that travel beyond
‘The Journey of Thomas Hardy’ – His spiritual journey towards acceptance & reconciliation with the past
Memories of Childhood
Poetry inspired by photographs - members are asked to bring a photograph and after reading some well known poems inspired by photographs the group are asked to exchange their own images and attempt a piece of writing based on the image seen for the first time.
The Moving Line’ - We will read various poems and examine in detail the challenge and effect of movement in the poetry in three different ways - to advance, progress, proceed; to relocate, remove, migrate, leave, depart; and to touch, impress, influence, stir, excite, and rouse. We will try to find out what inspiration and technical expertise lies behind the poetry. We will discuss why we read poetry. Is it because a poem changes us, takes us to an unkown place, arouses our feelings? We will then brainstorm the word movement, discover what images and thoughts it fetches up in our minds and then write or start some poems arising from those images and thoughts.
‘W.B.Yeats and his Loves’
‘Edward Thomas and a Sense of Place’
‘A Sense Of Smell’ – Poems and writers know the links between smell and memory. In this workshop we’ll explore how this sense works for us.
‘The Odes of John Keates’. Postponed due to illness. Members undertook an ad hoc writing evening using a single line from a Keats Ode to develop an original work of their own.
‘Arresting The Reader’. Meeting cancelled due to snow! Not a good start to the 2009 sessions!
‘A.E. Houseman’. A workshop looking at the British Ballad Tradition. Members are invited to bring a copy of 'A Shropshire Lad' and a modern ballad.
‘Mysteries In Verse’. In the first part of the evening the group will make a detailed study of two poems in which the central event is left piquantly unexplained. We shall look at the ways in which the poets interweave evidence with clues and how they plant their question marks. The 'amateur detectives' among us will doubtless enjoy coming up with theories and explanations! The creative work in the second half will be a direct follow-on: each person will try to create a short piece with an unexplained mystery at its heart.
‘ Walt Whitman’. An in depth study of the work and stlye of Walt Whitman
'The Odes of John Keats'.
'The Diversity of Hilair Beloc'.
'Syllabic Verse'.
'Walking And Dancing Into The Fire'.
'Arresting The Reader'. In this session we shall investigate the work of poets who have taken bold risks; poets who arrest our attention by mixing registers, poets who ignore rules and conventions generally observed by users of the language, and poets who push the boundaries of accepted belief and good taste.
'Poetry From The Shed (And Other Places) ' In this session w e will look at some of the poetry of Dylan Thomas and the events in his life as well as the mixed critical reviews of his work.
'Ships, Towers, Domes, Theatres & Temples' In this workshop Jackie will bring poems by a range of writers including Mark Doty, Marilyn Hacker, Walt Whitman and Sharon Olds to explore the ships, towers, domes,theatres and temples that Wordsworth viewed from Westminster Bridge. |