Poetry Course with Eileen Casey
With Eileen Casey. Starting 12/01/2021The Lost and Found Poetry Workshop
This online Lost and Found Poetry Workshop is an ideal way to explore the business of poetry under the guidance of a published poet. Suitable for writers of any stage, from beginners to advanced.
There will be weekly writing assignments and your tutor will provide written feedback on those assignments.
The ‘lost’ element of title refers to how poetry, like any other narrative source, can be mined from life experience whether first hand or otherwise. ‘Found’ refers to poetry that is already out there in the public domain, poetry in the guise of advertisements, notices in shop windows, horoscopes, recipes, bulletin boards, legal documents, ingredients on the side of a packet of tea (for example) or indeed, any text which doesn’t necessarily appear to possess poetic possibility. The Lost and Found Poetry Workshop also encourages experimentation with form and content through the re-structuring of existing material. Opening the storehouse of memory will also be part of the workshop process.
Week One: Found Poetry: ‘It’s not what you are looking at, it’s what you see,’ (Thoreau).
This module discusses the basis of how ‘found’ poetry is identified. Discovering texts and images which appear to be non-poetic but which are loaded with poetic potential is a tremendous way of honing critical faculties. The course will supply text in its ‘raw’ shape, demonstrating how line breaks can intervene to create a whole new linguistic dynamic. Creating line breaks is part of the process of developing a writer’s unique style. A glossary of useful literary terms will be provided.
Week Two: Form
Using ‘found’ material, varying types of form will be applied in order to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. In general, form and content have a symbiotic relationship, the latter often determining the former. Form can range from a simple shopping list to a Shakespearean Sonnet. Making the form choice ensures that the work has structure and definition. Various form examples (from the classical to newer, more contemporary ones) will be provided. The merits of free verse will also be explored.
Week Three: White Fences make Good Neighbours
Couched in another way; both a borrower and a lender be. Using existing work and recasting it provides the opportunity to get beneath ‘its skin’ in terms of producing a work of parody or simply by extending boundaries. Taking work already honed and polished by established poets allows the opportunity to amplify or redefine a single segment of the work, restructuring it to fit a new purpose.
Week Four: The View from the Window
Adopting personas in poetry is a useful way of developing voice. This module sets in train the facility whereby new poetic horizons can be entered. Akin to ‘viewpoint’ in fiction, ‘The View from the Window’ encourages the ability to adopt a gallery of different perspectives/personalities so that the resulting poems are multi-layered. The ‘Crazy Jane’ poems of W.B. Yeats, among others, are an example of this.
Week Five: Opening the Storehouse of Memory
Memoir poems based around people and places are a rich lyrical source. Memoir poems are filled with light and shade. They can be piercing and perceptive or darkly humorous. Memoir poems have the ability to transcend and transgress; to obey their own rules, to unearth and unfold. Timeline and historical backdrop can often provide the scaffolding for these poems, using language possibilities which cross space and time.
Week Six: The Collaborative Space
‘God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style. He just goes on trying other things.’ – Pablo Picasso
Part of the process of being a poet is the facility to collaborate with other art forms, to go on ‘trying other things.’ This module examines the relationship between the written word and the world of painting, photography and music. Engagement with other art forms broadens the sensual experience. A sequence becomes a suite, the blank page transforms to canvas, a photograph becomes a Haiku. Participants will be invited to choose a favourite image/piece of music and use it as a starting point for new poetic beginnings. A glossary of relevant technical terms will be included as a means towards shaping the work.
If you have any further queries, you can check out our Frequently Asked Questions or email us at [email protected]
Our cancellation/refund policy may be viewed here.