Friday, August 28, 2009

Poetry Friday -- How Poetry Comes to Me

CityLit Project is taking registrations for my fall poetry workshop. It's through the Write Here, Write Now program.
Poetry Cafe runs eight weeks (first session is Sept. 14). We'll talk about where poems come from, imagery and poems of childhood, list poems, using simile and metaphor, and how to build your own prompt.
Here's a model poem I'll be bringing to our first session, "How Poetry Comes to Me," by Gary Snyder.
How Poetry Comes to Me
It comes blundering over the
Boulders at night, it stays
Frightened outside the
Range of my campfire
Want more poetry to come to you? Visit Kate at Book Aunt http://bookaunt.blogspot.com/ -- our Poetry Friday host this week.
Want more info on my workshop?
Poetry Café: Small Plates to Tempt Your Writing Palate
Dates: September 14, 21, 28, October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 7-9 PM
Registration: $175
The Poetry Café is dishing out model poems and writing exercises for you to try.
Instructor: Laura Shovan's poetry has appeared in Lips, The Jewish Women’s Literary Annual, Paterson Literary Review, The Little Patuxent Review, and Joyful online.
Registration forms are here:

11 comments:

  1. Cool poem!
    I love your About Me description! That's how I feel sometimes. (but I'd be the not so organized mom of three in the afternoons ;)

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  2. I'd like to read more of Snyder's poetry now. Good luck with your class!

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  3. Thanks, Kelly. My guys get home from school at 3 -- that's when life gets crazy. Jama -- There's a great New Yorker magazine article about Snyder. It was published in the last year. Definitely worth looking up.

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  4. I like that -- wild poetry, just outside our range of understanding but willing to be tamed...sometimes...

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  5. This is a great poem for teaching kids metaphor.Hmm -- would be interesting to ask a group of children what they think the frightened "thing" in the poem is.

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  6. I'd also like to read more of Snyder's poems -- thanks for posting this. Oh, and the mention of the New Yorker piece. Will look for it.

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  7. You're welcome, Martha. It's a great bio piece.

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  8. Love this. What a great description of the poetry writing process! That rush of inspiration, the ideas that stay just on the edge of consciousness or just on the edge of the page, refusing to reveal themselves wholly.

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  9. Melissa -- I agree. And I love how Snyder doesn't over-explain or describe the metaphor.

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  10. Great poem, Laura--I love "the edge of the light." Where all good poems live, but where it can be so hard to find them!

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  11. Amen to that! I love the suggestion that we shouldn't go looking, but be in the space where we can be available to the poem when it comes.

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