My favourite poet, Milan Rúfus, said that “A poem is a synthesis of gift and hard work.” His poems are a testimony to the fact that poetry is an art form that requires skills and talent. Both need practice and ongoing dialogue with yourself and others.

Poetry can serve many purposes. Poetry can be healing, poetry can be life-saving. Poetry is vital, as Hild Bakka writes. Many poets start by articulating a strong personal experience. They put on paper feelings that are too hard to carry inside. Poetry Therapy is a well-established practice of using words for enhancing the well-being of individuals. Poetry Art is the practice of using specific writing techniques and tools to craft meaning with words.

When we set up the Stavanger Poetry Society in 2019, we knew there is an appetite in the Rogaland community for authors and poets to gather and talk about poetry as an art form. We are interested in poetry as a medium of expression and we discuss poems by traditional and contemporary poets to expand our writing techniques. From October onwards, we will be gathering as part of the “Poetry for Young” workshops at the Stavanger Library.

I have participated at several poetry workshops in the past; some online, some face-to-face. Some I liked and some I disliked. The ones I liked had some common features: they had an ethos of open-minded exchange of ideas. There was a mutual group support. They were professional in that all discussions focused on the poems and poems only. They followed a structure with a clear sequence of activities. They ensured that the voices of all participants got heard.

In the Stavanger poetry workshops that I will run, I will try to implement some of these good habits. We will meet in a small group and discuss poems by others and our own. I will encourage the participants to write poems in response to prompts (for example start your poem with ‘A late sunny afternoon…’) as well as specific poem types (for example write a haiku). We will talk about poems inspired by objects (artifactual poetry) or poems that respond to a piece of art (ekphrastic poetry). I will also introduce the concept of dancepoems and filmpoems – two relatively new forms of poetry that combine several forms of meaning-expression.

The title of the workshops is “Poetry For Young” because we would like to especially encourage young people to sign up. This doesn’t mean that only young adults can join- if you feel young in heart, please come along. You do not need to have a previous experience of writing poems, but you can also be an established poet with a long track record. We are meeting on the principle of a shared interest in the spoken and written word, where everyone’s contribution is valued.

The workshops are offered for free but please remember to register on Facebook. If you have a question, please write your comment below.

Per Ars Poetica Ad Cor Vitae