​Alameda Island Poets Workshop

Thursday, January 15, 7:00–9:00 pm

 

On Zoom: For the Zoom link, contact Cathy

 

Featured Guest Leader:  Anthony Pino

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Here's what Tony says about the workshop:

 

POETRY PROMPTS FOR ALAMEDA ISLAND POETS WORKSHOP

 

Sensual experiences

Much of my poetry involves rain and rain storms, and the violence, destruction, racket and promise they bring to the earth. Do you share this idea? Does exposure to rain, rainstorms, fire, the smothering silence of snow, or the jolting of earthquakes affect you in some emotional way---to the point that you could write about it in a poetic way? Can these events be metaphors for some of your life experiences? Pick one and try to write about it for fifteen minutes. Consider sharing it with your colleagues.

Re: “My Brother’s Rain,” “A Cleansing Rain.”

 

Is there an inanimate or animate object that excites your interest?

Re: Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus,” Pablo Nerudas’ “Ode to My Socks.”  Robinson Jeffer’s “Vulture.” John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” William Blake’s “The Tyger,” Charles Bukowski’s “Blue Bird,” or Lucille Clifton’s “Homage to My Hips.”

 

Pick a color and write about it.

Do some colors excite you? Can you account for the energy that a color can give you? I’ve written some poems that use color as a symbol or some other conveyance of meaning.  It’s been suggested that color evokes moods, suggests symbolism, and complements imagery.

Re: “At a Giants Game,” “The Compulsion to Kill Lions.”

 

Poems addressing human emotions, such as fear, love, terror, desire, sorrow and hope.

Re: Wilfred Owens’ “Dolce et Decorum Est,” W. B. Yeats’ “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” Countee Cullen’s “Incident,” Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night,” or Mathew Arnold’s “Dover Beach.”    

 

Is there an abstract idea that inspires you, such as freedom, democracy, justice, education, patriotism, time or peace? Most of us live on these principles which we regard as inviolable. At this moment, do you feel these precious values are under assault? Can they be saved---or, more importantly---must they be saved?

Re: Robert Pinsky’s “Ode to Meaning,” or Andrew Marvell’s “To His Coy Mistress.”

 

The New Year – how was the old year; are you glad to see it gone, or are you concerned about the one we’re now starting up?

Looking at the poem below, do you agree that last year’s was a “happy reign”?

Re: Anna de Bremont’s “The Parting of the Year”