Groups

Group for Spring Term Course 2020

Do you have a heap of discarded poems which just won’t work no matter how many revisions you make? The Poetry School’s Online Feedback Workshops provide a place for the general improvement of left-for-dead poems in need of resuscitation. Bring poems of any shape or size once a fortnight and receive detailed feedback from your tutor and general advice from fellow students. These courses are ideal for those looking to ready poems for magazine submission.

The music of every poem is determined by three things: rhythm, metre and lineation. On this course, we will examine these three elements and discuss the ways they interrelate in the shaping of the poem, with a focus on lineation—the art of ending, breaking, or turning the line. In particular we will take a look at the recent resurgence of the ‘deep-breathing line’ — the line that tends to run beyond the conventional invisible barrier in English prosody: the pentameter, often itself thought of as having been established because it corresponds to one natural human breath. Together we will look at how and why a poet would adopt this longer line, explore the possibilities it brings to the poem, and work on extending and loosening the line in our own work. With poetry from Walt Whitman, DH Lawrence, CK Williams, Jorie Graham, Louise Glück, DA Powell, Marie Howe, and Claudia Rankine.

Sell your readers tall tales in this repeat of Kathryn Simmonds’ popular course.

This ekphrastic course encourages poets to use a specific selection of online images, with an emphasis on photography, to promote new poems. It is rooted in Roland Barthes’ belief that once a viewer’s psyche is punctuated by a photograph they become immediately aware of a ‘blind field’, that world which exists beyond the subject secured within the picture’s frame. The aim is to stretch imaginations by using surprising and sometimes controversial images to inspire innovative poems, and to investigate what Barthes describes as, ‘something more of an internal agitation, an excitement, a certain labour too, the pressure of the unspeakable which wants to be spoken.’

The image is a poem’s engine; for poets, writing fresh and powerful imagery, encouraging the reader to think about the content of a poem in more than one way, is a joyful experience. On this course we’ll look at how poets use figurative language; how to avoid safe / predictable tropes in favour of daring / surprising imagery; the role of the physical senses; simile and metaphor, synecdoche and how / when to use these devices; the role of symbolism in poetry, and how certain poets – e.g. Wallace Stevens – use encoded symbolism in their work; image clusters; the extended metaphor; and audacious metaphors /
the conceit. We’ll read lots of examples of published poetry and try di erent strategies / approaches to push ourselves out of our comfort zones to create whole new ‘image banks’ for new work. (This is a repeat of a course that has run previously).

Do you have a heap of discarded poems sitting on your sideboard or desktop which just won’t work no matter how many revisions you make? The Poetry School’s online feedback workshops provide a place for the general improvement of your left-for-dead poems, your work in need of refreshment, and your brand new pieces. Bring poems of any size or shape to these sessions for detailed written feedback once a fortnight from a tutor, and general group feedback from fellow students. These two groups will be especially good for those with a large batch of poems that they are looking to ready for magazine submission.

To book your place on this course please visit: http://www.poetryschool.com/courses-workshops/online/online-feedback-course-with-james-brookes.php

Explore how it feels to think – to hope, to notice, to change – and in so doing paint a vivid and familiar picture of how it feels to be human.

Set sail on an adventure to craft poems for young audiences.

Narrate, reflect on and articulate great works of visual art

A back-up group for when your chat room isn’t working.

29 Sep – Introduction / Workshop / Exploration

6 Oct – Rowan Evans – Sound poetry / Poetry as sound

13 Oct – Alice Zawadzki – Finding the music in words

20 Oct – Samantha Whates – The craft of songwriting

27 Oct – Richard Scott – Music in poetry and libretto

3 Nov – Informal sharing/performance at the Canvas Café, Brick Lane (Covid permitting)

10 weekly sessions on Fridays, 11am – 1pm, starts 2 October. This is the first of a three-term course.

Do you have a heap of discarded poems which just won’t work no matter how many revisions you make? The Poetry School’s Fortnightly Feedback provide a place for the general improvement of left-for-dead poems in need of resuscitation. Bring poems of any shape or size once a fortnight and receive detailed feedback from your tutor and general advice from fellow students. These courses are ideal for those looking to ready poems for magazine submission.

10 weekly sessions on Wednesdays, 6.45–8.45pm, starts 30 September. This is the first of a three-term course.

10 weekly sessions on Thursdays, 6.45-8.45pm, starts 1 October. This is the first of a three-term course.

Easter Extra Course Spring 2020

A group for poetry in translation and translated poets. Post recent discoveries, theory, questions and your own translations or poems you’d like someone else to help translate. Partly inspired by Modern Poetry in Translation magazine (check out their wonderful archive: http://www.mptmagazine.com/)

Session 1: The Poetry of Museums
3 Aug, 7–9pm (UK time), live on Zoom
Assignment 1 deadline: 9 Aug.

Session 2: The Imaginary Museum
10 Aug, Campus only, no live session
Assignment 2 deadline: 16 Aug.

Session 3: The Impossible Museum
17 Aug, Campus only, no live session
Assignment 3 deadline: 23 Aug.

Session 4: Queering Museum Poetry
24 Aug, Campus only, no live session
Assignment 4 deadline: 31 Aug.

Session 5: Museum Manifestos
31 Aug, 7–9pm (UK time), live on Zoom
Assignment 5 deadline: 6 Sep
(final feedback posted by 7 Sep).

Participate in live conversations with some of the most successful and exciting poets, editors and publishers working today. Join us twice a month for an intimate, interactive audience with some of the great names and brightest new stars in poetry, covering every aspect of their creative life and writing career.

Questions are submitted ahead of time into the Q&A group. On the day of the live chat, a running order will be published and each user will be called up to ask their question in turn by the moderator, with the opportunity for a follow-up question. Transcripts are provided for all Q&As after each event. Details for all upcoming Q&A’s can be found in the group calendar.