On Poetry

 



Published by The Poetry Business in April 2022, On Poetry is a two-parter: the first, a series of essays that have come out of my reading over the last few decades, the second my experience running writing workshops with a lot of writing exercises to use alone or in groups. 

On Poetry is a progression from The Workshop Handbook which Arc published as an ebook and which I wrote originally to give away. It was my way of drawing a line under running workshops and trying to make sense of what I'd learned in that time. 

I'm forever grateful I had the opportunity to earn a living this way and be in this community of writers and readers. It's hard work being freelance and often being short of money. But writing On Poetry gave me a chance to identify what I'm thankful for, as well as to start understanding the links between what I thought were separate parts of my life - motherhood, sewing, gardening, writing and reading. 

Comments

Jenny Hockey said…
Not sure if my comments on your book arrived. And I wish I could find them for their freshness after finishing the book. I so enjoyed it, a real lifeline for me during the vagaries of poems being 'taken' for publication - or 'returned' (what I used to call 'rejected'). My copy is now heavily annotated. Loved the poems you included and referenced - Joy Harjo was a special discovery among some old friends. Also the suggestions for our own writing - including the workshop ideas which I can follow, even if I'm not running a workshop. Thank you, Jackie!