Are your metaphors causing you a meltdown?
Do you need starter fluid to set your stanzas aflame?
Light a match to your poetic imagination with a four-week poetry workshop at write@253, Tacoma’s much buzzed-about, studio for writers! In September, award-winning poet and author, Tammy Robacker, will lead “Pens on Fire,” a month-long poetry writing workshop. A skilled teacher and the 2010-2011 Tacoma Poet Laureate, Robacker has partnered with Tacoma’s new non-profit writing center to teach this writing series at a cost of just $20 per class. Register for one class at a time or the whole series for only $70! Address: 1310 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in Tacoma, WA 98405. Contact and registration information: tamsugah@aol.com. write@253 is a project of Spaceworks Tacoma.
SCHEDULE:
When writing poems rooted in abstract emotion or concept, poets must create concrete ‘sensations’ for the reader to attach meaning and interpretation. Class will read and examine poems showing how other poets use the 5 senses of sound, sight, touch, taste and smell to convey emotional tone. Then, class will spend second hour in writing exercises and/or group projects to produce their own poem ideas and poems. Poets will volunteer to read aloud and share their work with class for comment and gentle critique.
Let’s exam popular poems and contemporary poets who use powerful simile and metaphor as poetic technique in dense and fresh ways. Then, class will spend second hour in writing exercises and/or group projects to produce their own metaphors, similes, poem ideas and poem drafts. Poets will volunteer to read aloud and share their work with class for comment and gentle critique.
Let’s look at both traditional and conventional ‘unformed’ forms and seminar on their comparisons and contrasts. Examples such as Odes, Elegies, and Aubades have a distinct mission as a poetry form or type, but they offer a more free interpretation for the poet to express without the rhyming and meter or other technical constraint. Then, class will spend second hour in writing exercises and/or group projects to produce their own form poems. Poets will volunteer aloud to read and share their work with class for comment and critique.
If you have always wanted to write a Sonnet or a Sestina, then this is your class! We will examine traditional and popular poetic forms and structures such as sonnet, villanelle, sestina, and more. Then, class will spend second hour in writing exercises and/or group projects to produce their own form poems. Poets may volunteer to read aloud and share their work with class for comment and gentle critique.