5.6. SR 07-15-2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Poetry Workshop Of[ered with Loft Writer Olivia Gault The Elk River Area Arts Alliance is pleased to offer a workshop, Poetry Without Lines, conducted by Olivia Gault next October 15, 22, and 29. Gauit is a writer of poetry and nonfiction whose work has appeared in several literary journals. A writing consultant, Ms. Gault facilitates writing classes for adults and youth. She recently collaborated with visual artist Mark Tomlinson on Landmarks, a book of prose poems and drawings that kinesthetically interpret the path of a mindfully changing life. An example of Ms. Gauit's poetry appears in this newsletter. Poetry Without Lines will ask several questions. Can a poem be a paragraph? What makes a paragraph a poem? As Gertrude Stein opined, "What is poetry and if you know what poetry is what is prose? The prose poem shares elements of poetry and prose. Sometimes poets are prose writers and sometimes prose writers are poets. This class is for writers who enjoy writing and keeping definitions loose. Over three evening workshops, students will read poetry (e.g., Nathaniel Hawthorne, Sesshu Foster, Alison Townsend, Michael Ondaatje, Nikki Giovanni, Eavan Boland) and discuss what poetry entails--defining beliefs that either strengthen or weaken our work. We'll generate poetry of our own: freeform, Chinese bagu, and prose poetry. We'll consider facets of revision: theme, images, and metaphor, rhyme, line breaks and rhythm, language. Each workshop will include readings (photocopies provided by the instructor), discussion, and writing exercises. Participants will be encouraged to share work in class, but we will not critique one another's writing per se. The instructor is happy to provide feedback on work handed in. Everyone will be encouraged to read and write outside of the workshop sessions. The workshop will be open to high school students and adults. Be watching for registration forms in the September/October Eddy. This program is sponsored in part by the Loft Literary Center with funding provided by the Blandin Foundation and the Land O' Lakes Foundation. O! On the log bridge We find ourselves on the log bridge, dangling our legs above the water, a private reverie. It takes patience, a diligence to be still. We look into the teal-green water, allowing our inner rhythm to meld with the water flow. We are becoming ready, ready to release behavior and thoughts which have hurt us and with which we have hurt others. Either we let go, or we don't. We cannot have it both ways. Anyhing dropped in this swiftly moving water will sink and remain on the bottom to look up at us as if through a wavering liquid mirror, a constant reminder of what we have released. No, anything dropped into this water will be pulled downstream by the forceful current, away from our lives. Fearfully, we clutch our old ways. We are on the bridge, open to adventure, ready to make the commitment to cross, but not crossing. A breeze brings our ears the sudden out-of-season rustle of dry brown leaves. An oak held its leaves all winter and must loose them now, before new leaves can grow. We listen to its noise and hear our own, assumptions. When we are ready, change will occur. The water carries away what we release -- maybe all at once, an epiphany, or maybe bit by bit with each bridge we cross. Water runs. Trees fall down. Bridges appear. from Landmarks, Olivia Gault / Mark Tominson © 2002 Newsletter of the Elk River Area Arts Council, July and August 2002, Edition Number 40 page 4