On Tuesday, June 28th you’ll have a chance to do a Pre-Tree workshop with Brenda Leifso.
It’s free and on a drop-in basis. Doors open at 6:30 and the session starts at 7:45 to wrap in time for the Tree Reading Series. (Next features will be Carolyn Smart and Julia McCarthy.)
Brick author and freelance editor Leifso has been bringing to the table some wonderfully enriching poems and facilitates entering poems.
I’ve been stumped on some writers and poems, getting a blank wall. By sitting with a poem, asking questions — what effect the writer might be reaching for, how do they get the effect, and asking how successful they are, we in a group come to a richer understanding of what we’re looking at. People suggest how these poems work, what they see and don’t. It’s a wonderful give-and-take atmosphere.
So much of the time we read a poem and like it or don’t. This considers the how and why. Coming to anything through people who love that thing is the best way to go. There’s an atmosphere of respect and a desire to share what sparks.
It’s the last session of Leifso’s workshop cycle. The next ones will be lead by L.M. Rochefort. Every few weeks the facilitator changes so the catalyst and the aesthetic changes. This way anyone who wants to pass time with poetry can get a changing set of it.
There’s often time in workshops to bring your own work. Some facilitators assign (optional) homework. Some give reading pages. Some focus on techniques, some on themes. Drop in whenever you can on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.