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Poetics

Compiled by Glennis Hobbs

Time And Research For Poetry

This is the second of a three-part article featuring the Senior Poets Workshop at Writers' Village University and will feature some of the ways that the senior poets work with poetry.

The Senior Poets Workshop, also known as P123, is an open workshop for experienced poets at Writers' Village University. Here writers hone their skills as advanced poets, study recognized poets, discuss matters of joint interest, practice prosody, expand their knowledge of poetic forms, participate in the development of group exercises and course facilitation, have a place to pursue literary critiques of poems and poets and work with some of the master poets at WVU.

The responses come as part of a course that Gwen Austin and Linda J. Austin are developing called Lead And Silver. This is a course on working with poems from one’s slush pile of unfinished poems and revising them rather than starting new poems.

Question: How long have you been writing poetry?

Chris:
I started in high school and dreamed of becoming a great writer. I worked on the school newspaper and poetry journal. Then, in college, I would write whenever I was bored with a lecture. I once wrote a poem during the GRE exam after I figured I didn't know the math portion anyway. I pretty much stopped writing after college because of the demands of teaching and raising a family. I came back to it when I took the free writing course offered at Writers' Village and then stumbled on the advanced poetry classes. That was about three years ago. I needed an outlet for my time since my children were no longer needing it.

Gwen:
It’s probably been 7 years that I’ve been writing poetry. I got turned onto poetry because of the teacher of the advanced creative writing course I took for 3 years at a local senior center. Before that, I just about detested poetry probably due to less-than inspiring teachers in high school and college—or perhaps I wasn’t ready for poetry then!

Janice:
I have been writing poetry for about 18 years, but most vigorously for 15 years.

Lori:
I have been writing poetry about 3-4 years.

Mo:
Poetry started for me with two classes here: Freeing the Poet Within with Carol Malley and Linda Austin and The Pleasures of Reading Poetry with Arlene Lawson and Bob Wands. I thought to myself "Why not try them?" I am so glad I did. It's probably been three years at least.

Rolly
Since 1999 when I joined WVU! It seems like it has been for ages and I still commit the same mistakes. Talk about being a slow learner, huh?

Sarah:
A little over a year and a half.

Glennis:
I dabbled when I was in my early twenties and wrote poetry that makes me cringe. I got involved in serious writing when I took a creative writing course with Dr. Maara Haas in 1973. After being hit by a car, I wanted to do something that would fill Wednesday evenings while my fiancé was at Toastmaster meetings. After I won her silver apple award for the poet who suffered most beautifully I began to realize that I might actually have some ability as a poet. I made the mental transition to thinking of myself as a writer when I took classes with Charles Wilkins in 1983.

In 1985 I was chosen to work in the Manitoba Writers Guild with George Amabile and this is when I switched to mainly writing poetry. It wasn’t until 1998 when I became ill that I started hanging out in the T. S. Eliot Room which was then the place for poets to hang out at WVU. I couldn’t concentrate on prose so wrote mainly poetry, but was ready to give up on it. Thanks to the encouragement of poets such as Tom Spencer, I became a serious poet. When Carol Malley and Karli Shanklin offered the P104 course, I took it and I’ve been a poet first and foremost.

Question: How much research do you do on the subject of your poem?

Chris:
Sometimes I spend a lot of time researching since many of my ideas come from the news or newspaper stories that I have read. I will study the form and read about it before I try it or I will refer to reference books. Most of my researching is done on-line.

Gwen:
Since my poems usually come from experiences, I don’t do much research other than check dates, use the thesaurus for word choices, and use spell-checker. If my poem is based on an article, then I check facts with the article as I’m writing my poem.

Janice:
If I’m writing about a subject that is not familiar to me, I do some serious research. If my chosen subject is familiar, I often check a good dictionary or thesaurus to be sure a seldom-used word or phrase fits in with the text correctly. In the latter case, I also tend to research for minor details.

Lori:
Depends. My storm-chasing poems come from my “field work." If I’m interested in a subject or idea of a poem, I might do more research. But usually poems stem from an experience.

Mo:
I don't think I've done much research except to study a particular form like haiku or a sonnet. I think it's a good idea to consider. I always have a thesaurus handy.

Rolly:
Honestly, I barely do research. I rely on prior knowledge, experiences and the like. I don’t think I have the luxury of time to do a lot of research for a poem. My works are not the intellectual type but are more visceral (if I know what the word means) Mundane as it may sound, that is the truth and I believe you can feel it in my works. I am still concerned about writing a poem while most of you are already on forms and substance. Very basic.

Sarah:
Hardly any. For a poem I wrote recently, I did do a little web surfing to find out what color a meadowlark’s eggs are. Otherwise, if trips to the thesaurus count, I do that kind of research.

Glennis:
For poems that are written as a reaction to an experience, I don’t do research.

For persona and narrative poems such as my Biblical women poems, these have come about as a result of my association with my Bible study groups. One of my passions is reading royalty biographies, especially about Queen Victoria and her family. I read anything and everything I can find. These have resulted in some of my royalty persona poems.

I will spend hours researching and surfing for information. It all depends on the topic of the poem.


The Poets

Gwen Austin, retired therapeutic recreation specialist, lives and writes in Washington state in a woodsy spot near Mt. Rainier. Her first book of poetry, Through a Dusty Lens, is about a year in Vietnam. Gwen is also the author of two novels, Twilight Manor and Fateful Days. Currently, Gwen is co-facilitator for the Senior Poets Workshop at the online Writers' University Village.

Christine Bloom is a special educator and mother of two who resides in La Verne, California with her husband. She has been active in the Writers' Village University program for the past two years through the advanced poetry classes. She is a member of the Senior Poetry Workshop. Christine holds a Master's degree in the education of learning handicapped children, a counseling credential and several other teaching credentials. Her undergraduate degrees are in History and in English.

Rolly delos Santos is an Art teacher of De La Salle Zobel School, a school on the outskirts of Manila. He has been writing poetry for about two years now, thinking it will help enhance his third eye which he uses for his paintings. Rolly has been a member of WVU for three years and is presently a member of the advanced poetry group (P123).

Janice Oestermyer received her A.S. from St. Mary-of-the-Woods, near Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1984. She also studied poetry at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and children's writing via the Institute of Children's Literature. She has had several articles on writing poetry published; the first at The Christian Communicator, four articles in T-Zero: The Writer's Ezine, and one published at Fellowscript, Canada. Her poetry has been widely published and has placed in contests.

Lori Romero is a published poet and fiction writer. She served as Artistic Director of Friends & Artists Theatre Ensemble in Los Angeles. She currently resides in New Mexico. Her poetry and short stories have been published in Onset Review, Lotus Blooms Journal and several other journals. She recently published a book of poetry entitled Wall to Wall. She is a co-facilitator of the Senior Poets Workshop at WVU.

Sarah Sloat was born in the 60s in New Jersey, where she attended university. She lives with her husband, daughter and son in Frankfurt, Germany, where she works for a news agency.

Maureen (Mo) Swanson has been teaching in elementary school for nineteen years. She is a member of Word Weavers and Senior Poets Workshop.

Glennis Hobbs is a Canadian poet-writer. She has published two other poetry books, The Waldron Wild Cats and City on the Rocks and most recently In and Out of the Shadows. She is currently working on a novel plus three other poetry books as well as a novel. She is a co-facilitator of the Senior Poets Workshop and as well co-facilitates two online poetry courses at Writers’ Village University. She is a contributing editor for T-Zero: The Writer's Ezine.