Upcoming Workshops

WFOP’s mission is to promote poets and poetry in Wisconsin. To support our mission, WFOP creates, coordinates and hosts regular Zoom workshops as outreach to members and non-members.

Joan Wiese Johannes
June 2024
Releasing Your Inner Poet, Part 2
(for emerging poets)

In Part 2, Joan takes us through workshop poems, sharing before/after versions and discussing the changes and why. She also asked all poets to submit a line and created a group poem with the lines.

Touches All Over

The heart of Indiana looks like a downturned mouth 
and touches the Spirit with serenity shown in faces.
My musical heart, rippling with afternoon reality,
makes pillows from paper, uses trees as lullabies.
Inside the drawer, cords lie together like entangled nudes.
while the ripples of music creep into my heart,
whirl away seeking music to uplift my hope.
Confusion feels like reaching out my hand 
and no one taking hold of it.
Regret looks like raindrops on the window.
Exuberance looks like you racing to me as I brace myself
shooting thirteen-lined ground squirrels
in the garden of life.  Gratitude is the flower 
that has seeds that are here, there, and everywhere —
“They want what we can't give,” I say,
but only life can give you what you seek.
Their reality is mine as they whirl upward in the late afternoon 
as they creep toward their crypt and the influence of tomorrow.
My heart burns after I touch reality,
but no one said you had to be understood.

Joan Wiese Johannes
May 2024
Releasing Your Inner Poet, Part 1
(for emerging poets)

This workshop is a reprisal of 2023’s workshop and is designed for emerging poets who are using their instincts and love of poetry to create their own even though they may not have studied the art of poetry writing. This does not mean that experienced poets may not participate as long as they understand that the focus will be on the emerging poets.

Joan will lead participants through activities she used when teaching poetry writing, selecting writing exercises that produced the greatest variety of original material. Then, using the results of those exercises, participants will create drafts with an emphasis on what the poem wants to be, not what the poet wants the poem to be.

Worksheet

James Crews
March 2024
The Transformative Power of Poetry as Self-Care

In times of distress and upheaval, we need self-care practices that keep us grounded in our daily lives, and present to the actual world. As James Crews will show in his reading, poetry does just that, allowing us to slow down, and offer what is perhaps the greatest kindness to ourselves: listening to that deepest part of us which we might call the soul, the spirit, or the true self. With its close attention to sensory detail, poetry can keep us in the moment and in our bodies, so we might walk with whatever grief we feel, more fully embrace bursts of joy when they come, or tap into a sense of awe for the simple, everyday wonders we find all around us.

Barbara Crooker
November 2023
The Art of Writing About Art - Part 1
(Ekphrastic Poetry)

An exploration of ekphrasis, poetry that has a conversation with art.  We'll look at some sample poem painting pairings and discover some of the techniques and approaches that can be used in writing an ekphrastic poem.  Then we'll look at a painting and write a poem of our own.

Handout

C. Kubasta
October 2023
All About Chapbooks

In this chapbook workshop we talk about the different ways to organize chapbooks (should there be a thematic link? how to build? ordering poems?), how chapbook readers *might be* different than other kinds of readers, a brief history of the chapbook, and the nitty gritty of submitting your work. Wherever you are in your writing journey, join us to think about whether the chapbook (poetry, prose, or hybrid) might be a project for you. If you have a group of work that you're already thinking of as a collection, please bring it—we can shuffle pages and consider options. Lots of Q&A.

PowerPoint

Joan Wiese Johannes
May 2023
Releasing Your Inner Poet - Part 2
(for Emerging Poets)

This is Part 2 of a workshop designed for emerging poets who are using their instincts and love of poetry to create their own even though they may not have studied the art of poetry writing. During this session Joan will share before/after poems that have gone through the revision process, summarizing some of the changes made and why.

Joan Wiese Johannes
April 2023
Releasing Your Inner Poet - Part 1
(for Emerging Poets)

A workshop designed for emerging poets who are using their instincts and love of poetry to create their own even though they may not have studied the art of poetry writing. This does not mean that experienced poets may not participate as long as they understand that the focus will be on the emerging poets.

Joan Wiese Johannes will lead participants through activities she used when teaching poetry writing, selecting writing exercises that produced the greatest variety of original material. Then, using the results of those exercises, participants will create drafts with an emphasis on what the poem wants to be, not what the poet wants the poem to be.

Poem Worksheet

Joan asked poets to share a prompt line for a found poem, which she put together as follows:

Demands of the Forest that Reveal a Tragedy of Intrigue

Grinning in Paris, I see fluttery breaths, my friend,
while squirrels trampoline on a yard sign,
and blood clots cancel all hope of a journey
but meld to soothe or awaken memory
like a cracked glass paperweight filled with a colorful swirl
of wonder, joy and awe that feels like stroking a dolphin,
silliness that sounds like a giggle and __ smells like mints.

A square of sunshine purring with the cat,
the slender butterfly bursts in explosions and tears,
and the endangered monarch __ on the pink coneflower
awakens bursts of joy;
I want to put them in a vase!

But here in the attic of life, perfect answers linger,
concealed in nooks and crannies;
and invisible roots create explosions,
although that’s impossible once they’ve dug in deep.
I say this because I’m a miner with a goal,
which may be shallow or casual,
but my mind knows the family traits,
and yet, all I feel is the river,
and you can’t see the tadpoles because they look like mud.

South of here I know the meaning is not in motion
and the shell monster who dances slumped on the floor
is caught uncertain on rolling ground,
its rage like pounding a cast-iron pot
with the hammer of my heart …,
worry that feels like fingers grasping …the confessional pew,
embarrassment that looks like …a tug of war,
and jealousy that looks like dirty snow.

Sadder than slender robins
painting with knives, the palette their tongues
forever clothed with the odor of living,
I cradle a hummingbird skull,
bring an invisible butterfly to tears
that explode when I say goodbye,
our conversation in rags as we fly away.

*

italics - added word
… omissions from the submitted lines
Bold - tense or pronoun change

Karla Huston
February 2023
From Rolling Pins to Wrenches - Part 2
(Object Poetry)

Karla Huston
January 2023
From Rolling Pins to Wrenches - Part 1
(Object Poetry)

Shake Rag Alley, 18 Shake Rag St., Mineral Point, WI 53565-1134
Driftless Poets Writing Workshop (in-person or via Zoom): https://shakeragalley.org/product/23r014o/