Brentwood library is like a mile down Brownsville Rd and there's a poster about the "persecuted church" of Christianity above the waterfountain but it's a nice building located next to a nice high school campus with an outdoor street hockey rink. The workshop took place in the rec room below the library, a large basement-but-above-ground space full of book sale books, fooseball and air hockey tables and other churchy parephenalia that was very cozy. Does the PPE have ties to the church? Their second-to-last reading was at the South Side Presbyterian, albeit their latest one was at Hemingway's, so for now it's only my sneaking suspicion...
The group this week was 13 people, ages 60+ with a handful of exceptions, myself included. They are a delightful. intelligent, and capable group of workshoppers; informed digressions, such as the etymology of "normalcy" (at length!), were not uncommon. Michael Wurster is the bon roi of the group, hosting and contributing to and leading discussion; his work always goes last, and he is the only writer to actively defend his work, but he is pleasant and educated and fair and a great leader for the group.
The format is: everyone brings 16 copies of a poem to distribute during their turn and reads the poem aloud, once. Then everyone else gives feedback from that alone. Many workshops rely on email lists and the like to give everyone a chance to prepare responses, but the PPE does analysis by first impression. This gives the workshop a somewhat looser feel, a somewhat more informal and even playing field; everyone has to live by their wits so to speak and can only give the advice that is obvious enough to be formulated in a few minute's time. It also takes away the pressure of reading work before the event.
There was a mix of poems I personally liked and some I did not like; the group neither reserved judgement on controversial poems nor displayed passive-aggression or cruelty. There were strong opinions and tensions, particularly regarding one poem about elephant poaching, but those involved were mature enough to keep everything honest and respectable. It think it's the advantage of having an older group of people, that kind of maturity and above-the-board honesty, as well as the sheer education and experience; but there was also a great deal of energy in the room, it felt very productive.
I presented & read, too, and everyone loved my poem. My work, I think, was the least conventional of the bunch, I'd posit, so that might be both a) the thing distinguishing me from the group and b) the thing I'm bringing to the group... so often I feel like these two points are in conflict, I'm always looking for a group of poets who write like me who I can commiserate with... leveraging my own individuality against communities. What occurs to me is the advice given to me by members of the Haven last week: "you're looking for what you can get from the scene instead of what you can contribute." A continuing dilemma for poetryburgh... I'm going to go see the Haven ppl again tonight for their formal workshop and maybe some of the Hem's reading, so you'll hear about that --poetryburgh@gmail.com
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