The shape it wants to be

5 week poetry course with Sarah Temporal

Online + In-person (Northern Rivers) 

Early bird: $330 closes 12 Oct

Full price: $395

ONLINE: 

Mondays 6:30pm – 8:30pm AEDT

26 October – 23 November

Register here for ONLINE

IN-PERSON: 

Tuesdays 10am – 12:00pm

27 October – 24 November

At my place in Murwillumbah – address given at registration.

Register here for IN-PERSON

Description

How does a poem find the shape it wants to be?

It’s a question that fascinates me as I watch my drafts try out dozens of radically different evolutions, sometimes ending in a form that’s almost unrecognisable from where they started.

Sometimes the poet makes hundreds of tiny choices, drawing on a world of references, readings and possibilities. At other times, it feels more like we just need to get out of our own way.

In this five-week course, we’ll explore what happens between that first spark and the version that finally feels like itself. We will:

• Demystify the process of developing a poem, exploring the choices, dead ends and discoveries and that shape a draft.
• Explore different approaches to poetic form and the ways a poem can be in conversation with other texts and ideas.
• Read contemporary poets, discuss and consider how they invite us to play.
• Develop your own poems through weekly writing exercises, experimentation and thoughtful feedback from me and the group.
• Receive five gifts of creativity – yours to use when life gets in the way.

This course is for poets from beginner to emerging, who want to become more curious about their own process and advance their writing to the next level. 

About the facilitator: 

Sarah Temporal is a prize-winning poet, educator and arts producer living on Bundjalung lands in the NSW Northern Rivers. Her writing is concerned with revealing our hidden selves, and ranges from personal confessions to reclaimed fairy tales. Her first collection Tight Bindings was described as ‘Sonically brilliant, tender, and gutsy…born of razor-sharp social awareness.’ (Esther Ottaway). Her work has been selected for residencies with Varuna and Arts Queensland, and shortlisted for the Robert Gray prize and Val Vallis award. With a background in education, Sarah has taught poetry to hundreds of people from ages 5 to 95, and runs the regional arts initiative Poets Out Loud to empower voices of all ages. 

Questions – contact Sarah on 0428 256 531 or poet@sarahtemporal.com