Poetry Ireland Introductions Workshop

Another Saturday, another workshop. I feel a bit criticised out. A good gathering and sharing of opinions based on actual poems on the page. The eight of us Poetry Ireland Introductions 2011 poets (I was the only male) gathered under the gentle guidance of Alan Jude Moore and read and had our poems critiqued. I can't wait to hear other poems from each of the participants. A great variety in subject matter, form and approach made for an enjoyable and very worthwhile workshop which ranged over the usual topics - the title, line breaks, how much to tell the reader, poetic form.

I brought my Christ on an Ass, a response to this piece in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Strangely (not actually, this always happens, someone once said that poems begin to talk to each other) there was another poem at the workshop which was also a response to mediaeval German wood carvings, one of these Ars Memorandi. See picture above. A completely different approach but wonderfully effective.

There was a city/country reflection, a regular sonnet, a very subtle but extremely troubling Bail Out poem, a response to the London underground called A Stranger's Diagram of the City (Great title) and a poem on Palmyra which took its time, made you feel you were there and could feel the heat and see the desolation. Nice to read a poem which takes its time and doesn't feel it has to hurry. Almost all the poems, mine included, are probably going to have new titles as a result of the workshop.

It was also stressed that while it's good to listen to what others say about your work and their input is very useful, it is your work. If you have a strong feeling for the way you have composed a piece sometimes it's better to go with that feeling.

Sometimes it's not.

More on the line up and dates later.