Workshop 2

“Prose: words in the best order. Poetry: the best words in the best order,” wrote Samuel Taylor Coleridge. In a set of intensive workshops we will look at the making and the visions of English poetry. We will draw on the work of British, Irish, and American poets of several centuries, including the present one. We will look at forms. We will look at free verse. We will look at sound. We will look at shape. And, above all, we will not just look, but write and enact too.

Nothing stands still, especially poetry. The last twenty years have brought new possibilities, energies, purposes, and audiences to verse: insta poetry, performance poetry, the fusion of poetry with music and visual forms, multimedia integration (video, sound, visuals), interactive and collaborative forms like hypertext poetry, and platform-specific micro-poetry on social media. We will discuss and practice several of these.

Activities will centre around analyzing poems, seeing how they are made and what they are about, and on working ourselves with language – to make, to see, to perform. This is a set of meetings for anyone who wants better to understand the making and doing of verse. “Imaginary gardens with real toads in them,” wrote Marianne Moore of poetry. Let’s explore those gardens, see those toads. Let’s plant some of our own gardens (which may be electronic and in unfamiliar places) and let our toads (virtual or otherwise) loose in them.