What to Know About Poetry Night 9.5.13

It's finally here! The night you've been waiting all summer for--POETRY NIGHT! And now you're wondering, How do I prepare for Living Writers Collective's first fantastic night of poetry? Well, you've come to the right place. Here's a snapshot straight from Ramon Presson of what you need to know: 

• I'll do a short teaching about poetry technique with examples to stir your imaginations for writing. 
• I'll provide a prompt for a brief writing exercise. 
• I'm asking you to bring one of your favorite poems (by another poet). Do not bring Poe's The Raven or Milton's Paradise Lost---we're looking for something shorter because you're going to read and simply tell us something you like about it. (Don't mistake that for defending why the poem is good--it's just about you like about it.) 
• Lastly I'm inviting you to bring one of your own poems (shorter than Homer's The Iliad, please) and read it and tell us something you like about it.  Yes, it's more than acceptable to like something about your own poem. It's not bragging about your writing; it's just enjoying something that you created. I want to encourage your enjoyment of poetry (yours and others) more than your evaluation of it. Writing poetry is not required by federal law so if you don't enjoy it, why bother? 

In later sessions we'll offer feedback and some suggestions for improvement, but not yet.  Especially now but down the road as well I primarily want you to enjoy creating poems, not obsess over perfecting them.  If you enjoy the process of writing poetry then you'll improve. But at the end of the day if you like your poem, that's all that really matters.

Before we adjourn we'll have a drawing for a couple of surprises.  

See you Thursday,

Ramon Presson

Visit our post "Calling All Poets" to learn more about Ramon Presson and to read the official announcement for this session. Ramon will be leading all of our poetry sessions.