The title of this workshop, taken from a poem by Frank O'Hara, will be literal.  We will look at poetry from a wide open stance: what do you already know about poetry?  What do you want poetry to be?  What do you want poetry to do for you?  What do you want to do for it?  Like love, poetry is a many splendor'd thing&can be a valuable kind of writing to know when writing, well, almost anything.  We will explore established work from the past 100 years of American poetry to see the various ways poetic methods have been used to achieve a variety of effects (not always poetic), to best say what we want to say in the most effective way possible.  Participants will be given writing prompts & be asked to both share their work with  the group & respond constructively to other's work as well.  The workshop will be discussion-based & participants are encouraged to bring in a favorite poem, work by a favorite poet, or an example of what they think poetry should, or should not, be.  The end result of the workshop will be that participants will be able to apply poetic practice to other more "practical" forms of writing, will have a better understanding of contemporary American poetry & know that anything they wish to do with poetry is "all right" though it sometimes may not always be easy.  But then, is anything worth doing (or writing) ever easy?!!

This workshop is brought to you by: Quad City Arts Dollar$ Regranting Project by the Midwest Writing Center Poetry for All Ages. In celebration of national poetry month, with a grant from Quad City Arts, The Midwest Writing Center will offer a poetry workshop each Saturday in April. Each workshop will be for a
different age group beginning with 5th graders and going to senior citizens. The workshops will be offered at no cost. The participants will have an opportunity to share their poetry at a Bucktown evening event.