Burning Word 2007 Workshop Schedule

April 28, 2007

Inviting the Muse

Judith Roche ~ 9:00 am -10:10 am

Working indoors and out, we'll combine field observation with specific prompts to invite the muse. A number of poetry exercises will help us stir creativity and generate poems. Along the way we'll learn about honing revision techniques from poets as diverse as Robert Duncan, Denise Levertov, Mary Oliver, Lew Welch, H.D., L. R. Burger, and Octavio Paz. This workshop is appropriate for both advanced and beginning writers. You will come away with new poems or good starts to develop later.

Make-Believe Ball Room

Michael C. Ford ~ 10:15 am - 11:25 am

This workshop examines the role that contemporary film music plays in inspiring the creative imagination and assisting in our abilities to believe that the words and images on the movie screen are real. Music can become the soundtrack of our lives - its interacting facets allow writers to develop a sense of self-expression and explore the landscape of sources for what we perceive as images. We'll listen to soundtracks and imagine scenarios, genres, and details of the environment that the music suggests. We'll also look at movie advertising lobby cards from the '40s and '50s and write our impressions and imagined intentions of the characters shown.

Leap, Don't Tiptoe

Dr. Susan Zwinger ~ 11:30 am - 12:40 pm

Don't make sense! Learn the secrets of Neruda, Lorca, Borges, and other Latin American writers and their approach to the breathtaking leaps of surrealism (it makes sense only on another plane). Learn the use of duende, that sense of the brush of the wing of death that deepens a poem without being heavy-handed. Too often we American left-brainers tiptoe from line to line, making logical connections. Give yourself wings to fly!

Walking and Talking Poetics

Danika Dinsmore ~ 1:00 pm - 2:10 pm

Join poet and screenwriter Danika Dinsmore as she leads a workshop on the art of observation. Learn to address universal themes using everyday objects to dictate the poem. Let a rock teach of love, a coin teach of war, or a hat teach of forgiveness. This workshop is process-oriented: we will spend most of our time doing writing exercises, and participants will leave with a toolkit for further instigations. Be open to experiment and prepared to write. All levels welcome.

Responsible Writing

Tyrone Williams ~ 2:15 pm - 3:25 pm

Participants will read, analyze, and discuss small samples of innovative, experimental American poetry for the first 30 minutes of the workshop, focusing in particular on the ethics of the poets' "responsibility" to his or her putative audience. They will then spend the next 20 minutes writing poetry that responds to the work not only in terms of content but also in terms of form. During the final 20 minutes participants will read their poems and explain at what levels (thematically and formally) their work represents a criticism or homage to the particular poems and poetics to which they are responding.

Science as Muse

Derek Sheffield ~ 3:30 pm - 4:40 pm

This workshop examines how contemporary poets such as David Wagoner, Susan Zwinger, Pattiann Rogers, A. R. Ammons, Jan Wallace, and Alan Lightman yoke the language and ideas of science. We will discuss the specific craft and process as well as pitfalls of using science in poetry. Participants will write exercises of indirection and understatement centered on using the word cache of scientific language, reminiscent of John Gardner exercises but tooled for science.

Investigative Poetics

Christopher Luna ~ 4:45 pm - 5:55 pm

Using Ed Sanders' methods of investigative poetry - which suggest that poets regard themselves as detectives and historians, creating "open case files" on friends and enemies - Christopher Luna discusses different ways to incorporate the skills of a journalist, documentarian, collagist, or covert operative to create longer, narrative poems.

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