Dive into Poetry: dive into themed reading and writing workshops
The most enjoyable way to share and learn poetry is in a regular small group. In the first hour of these workshops, we’ll discuss an inspiring batch of poems within a particular theme, sent to you a few days beforehand. They’ll be a mix of some more well known poems and some new to you. We’ll explore the poems and poetic techniques with expert guidance. These discussions in themselves are rich and life-enhancing.
Then, after a short break, we’ll write together inspired by the poems and share some of our writing.
Expect in-depth discussion and lots of creative ideas for your writing.
This workshop is for all levels, including those relatively new to reading and writing poetry.
Poetry enriches our lives. It helps us express our shared humanity. Conversations about poetry are some of the most rewarding and enjoyable I’ve ever had.
Sunday 21st May
Theme: Animal Instinct
Explore your creaturely side. Fire up your animal instinct to get closer to the world of other creatures – after all, we are also animals! Although we can only see through our human lens, can we observe and imagine more into the world of other animals? Is the divide as great as we think it is?
Animals have always been a rich and inspiring topic for poetry. We learn more about ourselves and what it is to be human too in our encounters with other animals. Perhaps, we can also learn to share our planet better. What do animals teach us? How do we define ourselves within the animal world?
Sunday 25th June
Theme: Food Glorious Food!
Food connects us. Eating, cooking and preparing food is core to our cultural and social life. It is steeped in ritual and rich in sensual delights and metaphor. Tempt yourself in this scrumptious workshop.
COST & TIMING
One session: GBP £27,
There’s a discount for those who have been to Dive sessions before and also if you are in my home state of Western Australia. Contact me.
For other currencies, including $AUD, a cost effective exchange rate is automatically calculated by STRIPE.
UK time 10.30am to 1pm
Start times in Australia: Perth 530pm // Sydney & Brisbane & Melbourne & Hobart 7.30pm // Adelaide & Darwin 7pm
2.5 hours long
A useful link for checking other timezones: https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html
2.5hours for each session (with a short break in the middle)
maximum 12 people
ABOUT THE FACILITATOR
Australian Cath Drake’s collection ‘The Shaking City’ (Seren Books) was highly commended in the 2020 Forward Prizes, longlisted in the international Laurel Prize and described by TS Eliot winner Philip Gross as ‘a guide to staying clear-eyed, combative and caring in unsettling times.’. It follows ‘Sleeping with Rivers’ which won the Seren/Mslexia poetry pamphlet prize and was a Poetry Book Society choice. Cath’s prizes include a second in the 2017 Resurgence Poetry School eco-poetry prize (now called Ginkgo) and highly commended in 2019. She teaches writing in the UK, Australia and online. She’s an award-winning journalist and nonfiction writer and also a mindfulness teacher.
… a good poem creates an enchantment … a sudden surge of curiosity, interest, emotion, a momentary spell of heightened awareness, heightened emotional vulnerability, heightened imaginative sensitivity … I try to create a room in which something important is happening, will happen or has happened.
Poet, Dana Gioia
