Description
What makes an amazing love poem? And how can we develop our critical skills as a reader to learn from the master love poets
This class will seek to empower you as a reader and give you the tool kit you need. You will learn how to interrogate a text critically so you can learn how to grow creatively.
How should you enter a poem? By the front door, the window or the basement? And how does the way we enter a poem impact our poem?
We will cover subjects such as desire and transgression – how can transgression succeed (or fail) in a love poem?
What part do gender dynamics play in writing desire? We will look at love letters as a poetic form and write our own love letters in time for Valentines.
We will also investigate the power of everyday passions, asking how the love poem can go beyond romance (asking what would it mean to write a love poem to family, friends, or yourself? To an object, colour, or place?).
Reading will include: Andrew Marvell, John Donne, John Keats, and Emily Dickinson, alongside contemporary work by Mina Loy, Elizabeth Bishop, Gwendolyn Brooks, Frank O’Hara, Hera Lindsay Bird, Mark Waldron, Liz Berry, and Shivanee Ramlochan, amongst many others.
The workshop focuses on the creation of new material as well as honing your writing skills and participants will come away with a small body of creative work (2/3 first drafts.) There is a limited number of places available to ensure that the tutor has ample time to assist each and everyone taking part. All levels of writers are welcome.
On the day, we will:
*Write three poems of our own *Discuss what we can learn from the master writers *Read our work out in a supportive and friendly environment
*You will leave the workshop with a meaningful insight into the structure and techniques of the examples of great writing as well as a confident ability to create meaningful work of this genre. You will also leave with a body of work that you can build on after the session.
If you are a concession ie unemployed/disabled/student and want to claim your £15 discount email me at editor@southbankpoetry.co.uk please note that we do not receive any funding and that we provide this concession ourselves
