Workshops
One tool. Then the text.
A mini workshop is two classes of two hours. One tool, on a text you already wrote. Live, one to one. The time is arranged with you. USD 10. In English there is no filmed class.
If there is a live edition, the date is on the calendar. If it does not suit you, ask for the waiting list.
The idea that holds
A poem without one organizing idea shows things and does not say where they go. You look for that sentence and test it on a text of your own.
Two classes · two hours
The poetic image
If the line can be understood but not seen, the image is missing. You learn to give the facts so a reader can film the scene.
Two classes · two hours
Suspense in a poem
A poem goes out when the first line tells everything. You learn to keep one part back, so the reading continues.
Two classes · two hours
Voice in the act
Voice is not found before writing. It appears when the text does something, not when it is declared.
Two classes · two hours
Step by step
From one thing seen to a poem, in four phases: stay with it, let it remain, write without judging, and only then put it in order.
Two classes · two hours
Discourse markers
Some words tell the reader where to go next. You see them, move them, and test what changes if they go.
Two classes · two hours
The line break
A line can break before the sentence ends. That break decides where the reader stops.
Two classes · two hours
Analogy
Joining two different things only works if the poem needs them. The test is to remove the link and see whether the text loses something.
Two classes · two hours
Poetic perception
Before writing, look. Not at the still shape of the thing, but at what is holding it in that moment.
Two classes · two hours
Figure and ground
If everything sits equally in front, the poem is flat. You choose what stays in the foreground and what holds it from behind.
Two classes · two hours
Seven opening lines
The first line decides whether someone keeps reading. There are seven ways to open: you try them on the same idea and keep one.
Two classes · two hours
Seven closing lines
An ending can open, cut, or put the poem out. You write two endings and see which one leaves the poem working, without a moral.
Two classes · two hours
The hook
It is not a trick to get attention. It is the sentence that makes you read the next one, because something was left unresolved.
Two classes · two hours
Ordering the draft
Before looking for the pretty line, you have to know what the draft is saying. The subjects are separated and one path is chosen.
Two classes · two hours
Clinic of a poem
You look at how someone else's poem is made: what sits in front, where it breaks, how it ends. That way of looking comes back to your own text.
Two classes · two hours