I attended a most enjoyable workshop at the Forge Literary Festival in Gort at the week-end. It was run by Dublin poet Nessa O’Mahony and she did a great job of calmly encouraging us, the participants. It was mostly exercise based – a format I am not used to – and it was great for that very reason. I always feel if I learn – or come away with – just one thing from a workshop, it has been worthwhile. And I may have got the germ of a seed of a poem from an exercise that Nessa did with us based on George Ella Lyon’s poem ‘Where I’m From’. It’s an exercise I may use in my own teaching, if Nessa doesn’t mind.
Here’s a link to the poem and to George’s website:
Where I'm From
WOMEN RULE WRITER: Lit blog of Nuala O'Connor / Nuala Ní Chonchúir
3 comments:
What a wonderful poem, thanks so much for the link to it. I don't consider myself much of a poetry person, which is ridiculous really. I love this poem, the beat, the rhythm, the sense of it. Good luck with your poem inspired by this. I wrote a short story inspired by a line from a Robert Frost poem a few months ago and it came out wonderfully weird!
Tania
Some of your fiction reads like poetry, Tania. And as you are comfortable with shorter forms, maybe poetry is worth a try? Prose poems even!
I love that art inspires art. It seems fundamental and important to me.
You're very kind! I had wondered what prose poems are exactly, I was very surprised to read what I thought was a piece of flash fiction in the poetry section of a lit mag. Is there a definition? I am a little nervous of calling anything a "prose poem" but if you call it that, maybe I'll agree!
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