Poetry From the Heart is an introduction to/reacquaintance with the art and practice of writing poems, specifically intended for beginners and those who have begun, have been away for a while, and would like to re-engage.

The first step we take together is being honest about how each of us feels about poems and poetry, including, but not limited to, our fears about our respective abilities to understand and/or write poetry. Having done this, we will write, knowing we are free to write both masterpieces and the worst junk in the world, and growing into the prospect that most of us will do a lot of the latter on our way to the former.

Whether we write in the face of or beyond our fear, we will write, and have fun to boot.

Among the poet’s tools we’ll engage, depending upon the program’s length, are imagery, point of view, comparison, diction, the line, music (rhythm and rhyme), theme, texture, drama, and revision. Lurking nearby, of course, will always be those aspects of self that know how to create a poem and those that will try to sabotage every word: as we come to know our poet within, we come to know our self.

Stay tuned for more, including a selected bibliography of relevant and helpful books.