Participants will discuss how the poet is handling content – the decisions that have been made in terms of diction, form, pacing, syntax, etc. with a mind to coming up with useful ideas for revision. We will also see– and this is important—if the poem can travel down another path that has not yet occurred to the writer. In other words, we’ll look at the poem both in terms of its intent and we’ll mine the material of the poem to see if there are other possibilities for it that are of interest to the writer. There will be prompts and in-class writing as well as close readings of poems from provided handouts. I will also provide suggestions / exercises for you on your own time (optional). In short, while the work will be about the poems that we see on the page, it will also be about the possibility of discovering the poem(s) within our poems. We will be busy! Depending on the size of the group, we will look at no less than 3 poems by each participant during our week together to be emailed in advance of the workshop.

NOTES FOR ORGANIZATION: Poems will be emailed to me and to the group between 7-10 days in advance of the workshop. Make sure that your name is on each poem. One-page poems are preferable in 12-point font but we will accommodate two pages per poem, of course. Instructions as to which emails to send to will be forthcoming closer to the conference. You may want to print out workshop poems in advance although we may screen share poems on Zoom as well. Handouts will be emailed to each participant 7-10 days in advance of our gathering.