Poetry and Workshops

Last night at First Thursday, Heswall… A highly recommended venue and reading – First Thursday takes place in the back of an excellent bookshop, and provides a very entertaining evening. It includes a ‘Painting of the month’, a favourite poem, a guest poetry reading, some virtuoso live music and a brief open mic slot. Listening to poetry is so intense, I think a ‘mixed media’ evening like this is a great idea which opens it up to a wider audience.

Paul writes about workshops and feedback:

'It was actually exhilarating and really exposed the bits of poems that needed work, as well as surprising insights that even the author hadn't seen. I miss this experience greatly. As a consequence of not having such a group - I write much less than I did then!'

I think this ‘workshop’ experience is so important. It affirms new directions which you might be really unsure about, and sometimes demolishes things which need demolishing. In my experience this is the scary part. In a good workshop trust builds up and people are not destructively critical about others’ work: but sometimes just reading a line or poem in this context you realise that it doesn’t work – it kind of self-destructs. This is much harder to experience on your own. If you can’t find a good workshop it’s well worth starting a correspondence with a couple of kindred spirits. I’ve sustained an exchange of letters like this for the past six years, and it has enriched my writing hugely. I say letters, not email. For me the leisurely pace of sending off some poems then getting feedback and new poems in a couple of months is sustainable – an email whizzing back the same day is not.

Workshops and correspondence are as much about giving as receiving – what builds up trust is the close reading and feedback you give to the others – only then will they be realistic, appreciative and honest enough to help you.