Author Archives: Sawnie Morris
An Online Poetry Writing Workshop _ October – November
OCTOBER – NOVEMBER
Traditional Forms, Ecstatic Arrangements:
An Online Poetry Writing Workshop
- Dates: October 1 – November 19
- Times: Sundays, 1pm – 3:45, Mountain Time
- Technical Requirements: 1) the ability to send and receive email attachments in a word doc. format; 2) a built-in camera on your computer
- Times: Sundays, 1pm – 3:45, Mountain Time
- Payment options: check or credit card
Description: Join me, Sawnie Morris, in an exuberant exploration of poetic forms. We’ll read classic poems written in traditional forms, study our craft (including the historical origins of each form), and we’ll learn from poems by contemporary poets who are diversifying on the old and creating new and exciting hybrid forms. Each week we’ll meet together as a group – poets from across the country – to discuss the poems and prose-about-poems we’ve been reading, perhaps try our hand at a few in-class writing experiments, and share our own poems with one another in a generous, respectful, and informed workshop format. You’ll receive written comments on your poems from Sawnie, with the opportunity for a private, weekly, one-on-one session with her during “office hours.”
TO REGISTER AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Us
Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico
RANCHOS DE TAOS, NEW MEXICO
6TH ANNUAL SUMMER POEM-A-DAY WRITING WORKSHOP
- Dates: Friday, July 7 – Thursday, July 13, 2017
- Times: 10am-1pm
- Location: Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico
- Fee: $400
Description: We will meet each day to share poems written within the previous 24 hours. At our first meeting, participants do some wild & giddy writing toward the creation of a new poem. After that, participants will bring the first draft of a new poem to the workshop each day. At the end of each workshop participants will be provided with a magic packet to draw from, if they wish, for the inspiration of their next poem. Participants will be free to use the suggestions from the packets in whatever way they wish, or not at all. After responding to one another’s poems each day, we’ll engage in lively discussion in relation to poems included in the magic packets. At the end of our week together, we’ll gather for a meal to celebrate congratulate one another.
As part of this year’s weeklong adventure, special guest instructor, ROBIN SHAWVER, will discuss visual poetics with us one morning. Fun!
Each poet will be eligible for a 10 minute private session with Sawnie, during the week, to discuss their poems. Writers at all levels of writing experience are welcome.
To reserve a place in the workshop & for information about meals & lodging, please contact Sawnie.
TO REGISTER AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
Read Sawnie’s poem “Clothespins on the Line” in the April, 2017 issue of Poetry; The oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English speaking world.
HOUSTON, TX -7/23/17
A POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP, with Sawnie Morris
- Date: Sunday, July 23rd, 2017
- Times: 10am-1:00pm
- Location: Houston, Texas
Description: Poetry for Prose Readers & Other Lovers of Language
What happens to us when we read a poem – when we are moved and we find it hard to say why? What has the poet done to orchestrate language in such a way as to create a meaningful experience in us, her readers? In this workshop we’ll read a selection of poems for that meaningful experience, for how the poems make us feel, what they cause us to ponder. Then we’ll go back and look at each poem the way a poet does, navigating her craft. We’ll also experiment with doing a little writing of our own, just for fun! Bring a notebook and a pen with which you enjoy writing.
To register and/or for more information: CONTACT US
For a complete list of upcoming events and workshops: See our EVENTS page
HOUSTON, TX
A POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP, with Sawnie Morris
- Date: Saturday, March 25th, 2017
- Times: 10am-12:15pm
- Location: Houston, Texas
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Us
6th ANNUAL SUMMER “WILD & GIDDY” POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP, TAOS NM
- Dates: Friday, July 7 – Thursday, July 13, 2017
- Times: 10am – 1pm
- Location: Ranchos de Taos, NM
Description: Come revel in what poet John Claire called the wild & giddy words of summer! (Because our words do matter.) We’ll meet each morning for three hours to write, share poems written within the past 24 hours, and discuss the craft with which we navigate the sacred space of emotion that is a poem. Responses to participant drafts will be provided in a generous, informed, and respectful workshop format. Writers at all levels of experience are welcome.
TO RESERVE A SPACE AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF UPCOMING EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS: SEE OUR EVENTS PAGE
DENVER, COLORADO
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LIGHTHOUSE WRITERS WORKSHOP
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LIT: FEST 3 WORKSHOPS
The Magic of the Poetic Line: A Generative Workshop
- Date: June 14
- Times: 2pm-4pm
- Location: TBA
The Story Within the Story: Unleashing the Poem at the Center of Our Lives
- Date: June 14
- Times: 4:30pm – 6:30pm
- Location: TBA
Influence and Inspiration: Writing into the Poetic Tradition
- Date: June 15
- Times: 2pm – 4pm
- Location: TBA
TO REGISTER AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF UPCOMING EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS: SEE OUR EVENTS PAGE
PORT TOWNSEND, WA
THE MAGIC OF THE POETIC LINE: A GENERATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP IN WHICH WE EXPLORE THE CRAFT OF LINE BREAKS & OTHER VISUAL AND AUDITORY EXPERIENCES
- Date: Saturday, June 3 – Sunday, June 4, 2017
- Times: 10am-12pm & 2pm-4pm, both days
- Location: Writers Workshoppe at Imprint Books, 820 Water Street, Port Townsend, Washington
- Fee: $200
Description: Part of what makes poetry a magical art is the poet’s ability to orchestrate language in a way that creates an unforgettable experience in a reader. Line breaks, spacing, and punctuation provide cues intrinsic to that orchestration. How do we determine when and why to break the lines in our poems? How might visual spacing or the visual aesthetics of punctuation further reveal a poem’s meanings? We’ll consider a sampling of exciting free-verse possibilities to energize the shaping of our poems and we’ll write, keeping in mind that every turn of the line is a turn toward deeper meaning.
Participants will be provided with multiple prompts for new poems, throughout the weekend, and can expect to complete 3-4 draft poems by the end of our time together. Please bring paper and a pen you enjoy writing with, as well as a lap-top (if you have one).
* This workshop will include breaks from 12:00 to 1:30 pm.
TO REGISTER AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact Us
Read Sawnie’s poem “Clothespins on the Line” in the April, 2017 issue of Poetry; The oldest monthly devoted to verse in the English speaking world.
The Story Within the Story: Unleashing the Poem at the Center of Our Lives
- AN ONLINE POETRY WRITING WORKSHOP
Poetry is knowledge, salvation, power, abandonment. An operation capable of changing the world, poetic activity is revolutionary by nature; a spiritual exercise, it is a means of interior liberation. Poetry reveals this world; it creates another. -Octavio Paz
- Dates: Week of April 3 – Week of May 26
- Times: partially asynchronous
- Host: Online, (sponsored by University of New Mexico’s Rananim project and the D.H. Lawrence Ranch)
Description: Each of us at any given moment has a poem coiled at the center of our lives, a story that must be told. What that story is or how it is revealed may appear to shift, but the story is always there, at times urgent under pressure, at other times rising as quietly and mysteriously as mist from the pond of our being. During this 8 week workshop we will plumb the depths for that which only the letting loose of words on the page can reveal. Our focus will be on writing narrative poems based on what Galway Kinnell termed, “the intimate personal experience of a life” – allowing each of our individual voices and concerns to spring into shape from the concert of heart, mind, and body, with an ear to the music – however subtle – that is intrinsic to poetic dimension. We’ll read the narrative poems of a range of exciting contemporary poets, as well as insightful prose pieces on craft, and we’ll participate in routine peer discussions – all of which will provide us with inspiration and guidance on the way to writing as many poems as our muse allows and our spirits dare. While writers at all levels of experience can benefit, this workshop is primarily designed for beginning and intermediate poets who wish to expand their range of expression and knowledge of craft, while generating new poems and having fun.
To register and/or for more information: CONTACT US
For a complete list of upcoming events and workshops: See our EVENTS page
DREAMS & CREATIVITY
- Date: Weekly for 10 weeks starting 3rd week of March
- Times: 6pm – 8pm
- Location: Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico
Description: Nature speaks to us through dreams and listening to dreams is a beautiful way to access and invigorate the Creative within each of us. This workshop is for anyone interested in exploring the creative wellspring of the dream world. We will meet weekly for ten weeks to listen to and share dreams.
TO REGISTER AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US
FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF UPCOMING EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS: SEE OUR EVENTS PAGE
SawnieMorris.com 