About Poets and writers forum

Poets and Writers Forum
was founded by Saradha Soobrayen in 2002 and is a creative space for writers and poets to explore their creativity and develop their skills as practitioners. Please note the blog is a resource to encourage dialogue between all participants that are attending mentoring schemes and poetry courses led by Saradha Soobrayen.

Poetry by Bodyworks participants July 2007

Feel free to submit your own poems on the body

Here is a body poem of my own.

I will unlove you

I will unlove you and become hollow,
undo every feeling from its hold.

I will lose one lung and restrict blood flow,
deflate my heart and circulate the cold.

Numb my tongue and choose not to swallow,
tie up my larynx, let love go untold.

Squeeze the tenderness from my marrow,
and scrub sensation from every fold.

Will I still be your Saradha tomorrow?
What becomes of us when love lets go?


Published in New Writing 15 Anthology (Granta /The British Council) 2007

http://newwriting.britishcouncil.org/

See the new writing website for tips for writers and teachers.

Please post any poems/feedback in the comment section.

Bodyworks forum discussion Walt Whitman - I sing the body electric

Walt Whitman and Female Representation

8

A woman's body at auction,
She too is not only herself, she is the teeming mother of mothers,
She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the mothers.

Have you ever loved the body of a woman?
Have you ever loved the body of a man?
Do you not see that these are exactly the same to all in all nations and
times all over the earth?

If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred,
And the glory and sweet of a man is the token of manhood untainted,
And in man or woman a clean, strong, firm-fibred body, is more beautiful
than the most beautiful face.Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live body
or the fool ?
that corrupted her own live body?
For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves.

Discussion points

How far is Whitman's poetry truly representative of the experiences of women?

Should we accept D.H Lawrence's negative decription of Whitman's viewpoint on women

as being just ' Mucles and wombs. They needn't have faces at all'?

For futher reading see the essay

" Being a woman...I wish to give my own view": Some nineteenth Century Women's responses to the 1860 Leaves of Grass by Sherry Ceniza published in

The Cambridge Companion to Walt Whitman edited by Erza Greenspan

Bodyworks Discussion - Antony Gormley Blind Light at The Hayward Gallery, SouthBank Centre

The Art and Poetry of Antony Gormley


'I think that architecture is another kind of body, another container'

Antony Gormley 1994

'Sculpture reminds everyone that we are human and that we are embodied, incarnate, that all your sense of self and being comes through the body which is only fully itself when placed, connected to an elemental world.'

Antony Gormley 2001

Questions for poets to explore further in their work

Is poetry another kind of body, another kind of container?

How far can the body in poetry be a container for memories?

Can poetry not only represent the body but examine the spaces that human beings inhabit?

Does poetry fully explore the abstract body, the real and imagined body, the insides and outsides, the presence and the absence of the body, the seen and unseen?

Please post here your poetry thoughts and comments

on the Blind Light exhibition

which runs until 19 August 2007.

Bodyworks Poetry Course Summer 2007

A six-week poetry course for intermediate writers

This course will open up your creative process to new stimuli and help you discover poetic inspiration in the human body. Through group discussions and writing exercises you will delve into the latent emotional, physical, spiritual, and political metaphors of our physicality, and use them to inform your writing. You will also develop critical understanding through close readings of key poems including Walt Whitman’s poem I Sing The Body Electric. During the course each participant will receive critical feedback.

This course is for poets in the process of creating a collection.

To apply, send a letter by Monday 4 June stating why you would like to go on the course and what you hope to gain from it, plus three of your poems, to Spread the Word, 77 Lambeth Walk, London SE11 6DX. Mark your envelope “Bodyworks”.

Number of places: 12
£50 / £24 concessions

Time:
6.30pm-8.30pm

Dates:
Tuesdays 10, 17, 24, 31 July; 7, 14 August

Place:
Poetry Studio
The Poetry Society
22 Betterton Street
London WC2H 9BU
Covent Garden

Developing Critical Skills in Poetry

One-to-one sessions and small group work.

Are you interested in pushing your boundaries to produce original and insightful poems? Would you like to develop your writing technique and critical reading skills?

Through the close reading of your own poems and examples from established poets we will discuss the vital elements of poetry to inform your own writing process.

Shape ~ Formal Verse ~ Free Verse

Rhythm ~ Rhyme ~ Meter

Language ~ Syntax ~ Grammar
Simile ~ Metaphor ~ Symbolism
Alliteration ~ Assonance ~ Repetitions
Tone ~ Irony ~ Ambiguity

Participants will be encouraged to attend a session every two weeks and to complete an agreed writing task between sessions.

Open to all poets at any stage in their writing. 3 sessions will be held over 6 weeks

Individual sessions run for 1hour. £30
Group sessions run for 2 hours ( up to 4 places available) £20- 30

For availability and further information email any queries to poetsandwritersforum@yahoo.co.uk with ‘Developing critical skills' in the subject heading.

Editing and Critique Services

Poetry Editing Surgeries at the Poetry Café.

Would you like help with editing and shaping your poems?

These one off sessions can be booked a week in advanced subject to availability. Assistance will be given in the rewriting and drafting of poems within the one hour session. Fee £30

An Internet Critique Service is available. Up to 100 lines. Fee £50

For availability and further information on full manuscript appraisals email any queries to poetsandwritersforum@yahoo.co.uk with ‘Poetry Editing Surgeries’ in the subject heading.

Watch this space for tips on rewriting from leading poets.