Let Unity Do the Work: A Poetry Workshop

“The journey of developing craft is not a linear process,” says instructor Tongo Eisen-Martin, “but rather a process of expanding your powers of perception and relaxing into your singular voice on the page.”

The objective of this workshop is to share strategies for writing and editing poems generated by the idea that your poetry is a part of your one human experience taking place in and revealed by an interconnected reality. For each strategy, you will complete a corresponding in-class writing prompt drawing on your own life experiences and worldviews, as well as the critical perception of your craft. Poems will be shared both for possibilities of revision and expansion. Tongo says, "As a group, we will also work on the practice of reading poems aloud in order to realize the full potential of the poem as it exists in a shared moment."

By the end of three weeks, students will begin an approach to craft in which the objective of craft is the perpetual creation of new writing strategies and new opportunities to relax into one's own voice. This workshop is for writers of all levels and backgrounds.