I’m so looking forward to leading a two-hour (free) writing workshop on Saturday, 11/23/24 (11 a.m.–1 p.m.) at the Millinocket Memorial Library.
As part of the Write ME project of the current Maine poet laureate, Julia Bouwsma, I led the pilot last year in Eastport. This fall it launched full scale across the state in 20+ libraries. Julia assigned me Millinocket.
OK, so here’s where it sounds all fancy and maybe intimidating, but, trust me, it’s not! They call it an epistolary poetry writing workshop. Epistolary just means we’re writing letters as poems you’re not intended to send—or you could if you wanted to. Your call—obviously!
Everyone is welcome. Done it before? Great! Never even thought of writing a poem? Great!
Here’s how I described it: “In this workshop, we’ll explore the wide variety of epistolary (letter!) forms in poetry and write funny, sad, brilliant poems to friends and family, wolves and seed pods, world leaders, the living and the dead (the possibilities are endless).”
Lots of well-known poets have written them. Lots of not-so-famous writers have too. As well as people who would never say they’re “writers” or “poets.”
Here are the beginnings of a few epistolary poems:
On the third day, I wrote to you
about the sky, its elastic way
of stretching so ocean-wide
that the only way to name it…
Meg Day
Dear train wreck, dear terrible engines, dear spilled freight,
dear unbelievable mess,
all these years later I think
to write back. I was not who I am now…
Kerrin McCadden
sweet jesus superman,
if i had seen you
dressed in your blue suit
i would have known you…
Lucille Clifton
Dear Mama,
Time I pay rent and get my food
and laundry I don’t have much left
but here is five dollars for you…
Langston Hughes
I hope you return
as a circle or a boned blackbird swooping around in the lacy creep of time
as a throat singer, dragonfly, sewerman, hyena, yellow meadow ant,
Italian girl on the corner shouting “ciao” waving her chubby hand wildly…
Annaliese Jakimides
I’m hoping that some of you out there will see this as an adventure! As a time to hang out! As a way to stretch your writing—or your brain! As a way to say something you didn’t even know you wanted to say! As just part of this glorious life!
Looking forward to seeing you!
