Becca Barniskis - Writing Poetry

Presentation teaching participants how to write poetry. One of poetry’s strengths is how it uses imagery to convey complex ideas and feelings in an efficient and effective manner. Poets have different tools that they can use to do this; one of the most common is figurative language, for example: metaphor or simile or personification. Using figurative language allows poets to invent and have fun with or do dangerous, interesting things with mere words. The words create pictures in our minds that have all kinds of associations and meanings (both personal and more universal) that enrich our understanding of the poem’s meaning and method. This session is about using a particular example poem and examining it closely for both its meaning and technique so we might borrow similar gestures and create our own poem/poem ideas. The way that we will break down the writing process step by step makes this session appropriate to participants of all ages. Nine presentations took place in the LARL Region over a three-day period from September 17 to September 19, 2013.