Creative Writing: How to Write Contemporary Poems

Poetry is a craft and therefore an understanding of the technical aspects of writing is important. To this end, we will explore and discover how to generate music within poetic language, how to innovate imagery and metaphor, and how to formulate patterns of lines, stanzas, stresses, rhymes and half-rhymes. In doing so, we will sample a range of contemporary poetry in English, and discuss what one can learn as a writer from older and contemporary poets. Each workshop will be conducted in a mutually supportive atmosphere, in which students will be confident to express their thoughts, imaginations and emotions. Each workshop will allow experimentation with language and ideas, and will build towards the creation of the first draft of a poem. By the conclusion of the course, three or more poems will have been completed. Advice will be given regarding how to edit one’s work, how to read one’s poems and perform them, and how to prepare those poems for submission to magazines or small presses. Come and enjoy writing in a supportive atmosphere. and will enable students to develop writing within each session, along with honing their critical skills as an editor of their poems.