Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop

What the workshop emphasises

This beginner-level CalArts workshop approaches poetry as a craft to be tested and revised rather than a flow of self-expression. The focus falls on line breaks, abstraction and metaphor, and on how those devices can be pushed to create effects a reader will notice. The course rewards writers who are prepared to cut, rearrange and rethink a poem several times before calling it finished.

Who it is for

Readers who already write verse and want to move past familiar imagery will get the most from it. Learners curious about how language changes when pushed beyond convention will find the experimental angle appealing.

Takeaways

• Revision as the stage where a poem is really made
• Lineation and rhythm treated as deliberate choices
• Stock images replaced with sharper, more particular ones