2018 Massachusetts Poetry Festival

How difficult it is write of the wasting away of someone we love, or the failure of our own body?  In this workshop, participants will reflect and implement different strategies to write about long term illness.  We will explore the importance of Point of View; discuss our range and opportunity for language not often found in poetry, and reflect on the difficulty and import of writing in the presence of death.  The workshop will briefly discuss the difference between writing about disability and writing about illness.  Students will engage in a number of brief fast exercises designed to jumpstart a poem.  Please be prepared to laugh and cry together.