If you were to find out that the heart of your poem is different from your own heart, would you still care about it? What if your poem doubted, or contradicted, something you have always believed or held dear? What if it misbehaved in public, got arrested, called you in the middle of the night to come down and bail it out—would you show up for it? If your answer is yes, then this workshop is for you.  

We will spend part of each session revising work participants submit in advance, and the other part composing new poetry. Revising and composing—every writer loves one of these a lot more than the other, but both are vital to master. To compose we must walk in the dark, go through doorways, and surprise ourselves on the page. We must be willing to play like children and not care about sucking. To revise we must put ourselves in the shoes of the reader, and zero in on what the poem wants to say, which is seldom (if ever) what we want to say. We must be ruthless, willing to cut even our best line if it advances the poem.  

This workshop is for anyone with a love of poetry writing, hungry to stretch their craft and deepen their approach. 

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through guided exercises and prompts; workshop writing you bring from home.