What even is a poem?

Would you say it is a short burst of creativity, perhaps a page in length? Or something constrained by form to a certain number of lines or syllables?

Dr. Michael Arnzen brought up a good point when mentioning his thoughts on the proper length for a poem on Day 1 of Writing Poetry in the Dark, during The Dead Draft: Knowing When a Poem Is Dying (and What To Do About It). If you endeavor to write a poem longer than two pages in length you'll need to go about it with some intentionality.

Bearing that in mind I will present Unmapped Approaches to Infinity: The Dark Poetic Abyss on Tuesday at 10 AM EST. This session will be engineered to help you resolve:

1. when you should be writing a long poem or drafting a story instead,
2. what the stylistic considerations are with longer forms,
3. and how to publish such a work after you complete it.

Live Workshop Recordings

The Blackout Poetry How-To Workshop led by Jessica McHugh was an absolute blast, and is now available on demand in the Recordings area. Donna Lynch's workshop on Writing the Wound is also available, but has been edited to remove the final segment during which attendees were onscreen sharing their creations.

If you missed out on participating in either workshop I recommend watching them, and using the prompts offered by Donna and Jessica to perfect their techniques.

You can reply to let me know if you have any questions about long-form poetry, or if you need assistance registering for the event. I hope you'll have the chance to join us! The event ends at 12 noon this Tuesday, October 11th, but you will be able to access the Recordings area afterwards.

Register Now!

Sincerely yours,

John Lawson,

Founder