The 17th Belfast Poetry Festival returns this year on Saturday, October 15, to offer an in-person event including workshops and the Evening Collaborative Showcase at 6:30pm at the Troy Howard Middle School.
Saturday, October 15, from 1 to 3 p.m., the Belfast Poetry Festival is offering two simultaneous workshops which will be held at Belfast Free Library, 106 High Street, Belfast.
In A Walk on the Wild Side: Turning Animal Encounters into Poetry & Art, local poet and artist, Leslie Moore will use a quote by Michele Wyrebek, from “Be Properly Scared” as a jumping-off point. In this generative workshop, participants will write poems and/or make art featuring animals encountered in the wild or in their own backyards. Often, chance encounters with wild creatures leave us stunned and speechless. Recollected in tranquility, these meetings may demand to be put into words or made into art. Participants should bring writing and/or art materials, and a device which allows them to access the internet. Participants will research and, in the process, learn something about the animals chosen as well as themselves.
Elegy: Poetry of Return, Poetry of Mourning Claire Millikin, a poet based in coastal Maine and author of eight collections of poetry, will take on the poetic form of the elegy, or the poem of mourning, asking the question of how poetry and mourning intersect and need each other. As we move beyond a pandemic that has cost so many lives, participants may find themselves aware of the process of mourning and want to bring the process of poetry to this work of mourning. In this workshop, participants will briefly gloss the history of the elegy and read and discuss a few examples of poems, from the work of Ross Gay, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Anne Carson. However the main work of the workshop is to talk about where poetry and mourning meet and how they need each other. Working from a few prompts, participants will write new poem drafts and discuss them. Please bring a notebook and pen.
To register or for more information, go to http://belfastpoetry.com and find the workshop links. Workshops are $25 each. Early registration is encouraged because space is limited.
The 17th Belfast Poetry Festival is made possible with support from the City of Belfast, Belfast Free Library, Waterfall Arts, United Farmers Market, Belfast Senior College, and The Maine Review.
