The Benefits of Poetry Workshops

Since my last post I have attended another two poetry writing workshops and discovered that whilst I enjoy the pressure of trying to compose in a short time, I am often phased by trying to bring a more formal structure into my writing. I accept the discipline is worthwhile and can add to the overall quality of writing but that the words flow less easily and it's difficult not to fall into contrived constructions.

Here are my efforts from a workshop earlier this year where Emma Purshouse led us through various forms and challenged the group to create within their constraints. The first is a Triolet (originally a Medieaval French form) that requires a complex series of rhyming lines. I chose the window displays of sewing machines as I thought the repetitive nature of sewing suited the form.
The second is an incomplete Sonnet inspired by an art exhibition in the local church at Audlem during the music and arts festival last May.

Sewing.

Thread through the needle's eye
Spin the bobbin round
Watch the stitches fly.
Thread through the needle's eye
Don't look up, ignore the sky
in out, in out to the pound
Thread through the needle's eye
Spin the bobbin round

Upcycled Fashionistas

We stand in judgement in this sacred space
We do not see the beauty in your art.
Your vain display in this public place
We share with blank white face and cold black heart.
Can you not see we've created style and taste,
We've bettered ourselves to show you how to dress?
We stand for tradition and make a case
For how less is more and much more is less.