Author Archives: Sawnie Morris

“What’s To Love About the Poetic Line?”

“What’s To Love About the Poetic Line?” (A Poetry Writing Workshop)

Santa Fe Summer Writers Conference

  • Date: Saturday, July 30 and Sunday, July 31
  • Times: 10am-12noon, 2pm-4pm, both days
  • Location: Drury Plaza Hotel, Santa Fe, NM

Description:  The first visual clue that we are in the presence of a poem is language defying the dictates of margins. In poetry, the line ends where the poem compels the poet to say it must. Sometimes words flood the page, more often they spin and eddy, they splash and disperse, or make an abrupt staccato turn to prove their point. The word “verse” derives from the Latin and contains the meanings turn and toward. In poetry, each turn of the line is a turn toward deeper meaning. How do we determine when and why to turn or break each line in our poems? In this workshop, we’ll focus on options and approaches inherent to the contemporary free-verse line and we’ll look at poems that exemplify those choices in ways that are by turns sensory, conceptual, and emotional. In each case, one turn in the river at a time, we’ll have the thrill of expanding our range of formal options, while experimenting with the exciting possibilities that an understanding of the poetic line and space on the page have to offer. This workshop is for beginning and intermediate poets, free-writers who are interested in giving shape to that flood of words in their notebooks, as well as for anyone who has experience writing poems and wishes to expand their range of expression and knowledge of craft, while having fun.

TO REGISTER AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION:  https://secure.touchnet.com/C21597_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=1495&SINGLESTORE=true

Summer Poem-A-Day Poetry Writing Workshop

  • Dates: Tuesday, July 5 – Monday, July 11
  • Times: Daily,  10:30 – 1:30 pm, for One Week
  • Location: Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico

Description:  This poetry-writing event is meant to help us create, as poet Robert Hass has said, poems that are “stronger and truer than ever before.” We will meet each day to share poems written within the previous 24 hours. At our first meeting, you’ll be offered a series of prompts toward the creation of a new poem. After that, you’ll bring the first draft of a new poem to our workshop each day. At the end of each day, you’ll be provided with a magic packet to draw from, if you wish, for the inspiration of your next poem. You will be free to use the suggestions from the packets in whatever way you wish, or not at all. You’ll be eligible for one 10 minute private session with Sawnie to discuss your poems. Writers at all levels of writing experience are welcome.

To register and/or for more information: Contact Us

For a complete list of upcoming events and workshops:  See our EVENTS page 

MUSE X 2, A Poetry Reading with Sawnie Morris & Peter Streckfus

MUSE X 2, A Poetry Reading with Sawnie Morris & Peter Streckfus-Curated by Dana Levin and Carol Moldaw

  • Date: May 8
  • Times: 4pm
  • Location: Collected Works Bookstore
    • Santa Fe, NM
TO REGISTER AND/OR FOR MORE INFORMATION:  CONTACT US

Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Café

Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Café– Sawnie will read from the collection of poems, Her, Infinite

  • Date:  Thursday, April 21
  • Times:  7 pm
  • Location: Innisfree Poetry Bookstore & Café
    • Boulder, Colorado
FOR MORE INFORMATION: CONTACT US

The Story Within the Story: Unleashing the Poem at the Center of Our Lives

  • Dates: Monday, January 18 – March 4th
  • Times: an online workshop
  • Host:  Sponsored by the Rananim Project: an online writers’ community of the University of New Mexico, in connection with 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 : CONTACT US           

For a complete list of upcoming events and workshops:  See our EVENTS page 

The Mind of Winter Springs Open! : A Poem-A-Day Poetry Writing Workshop

  • Dates: Sunday, January 10 – Saturday, January 16
  • Times: Daily, 12 noon – 2:30 pm, for One Week
  • Location: Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico

Description:  This poetry-writing event is meant to help us create, as poet Robert Hass says, poems that are “stronger and truer than ever before.” We will meet each day to share poems written within the previous 24 hours. At our first meeting, you’ll be offered a series of prompts toward the creation of a new poem. After that, you’ll bring the first draft of a new poem to our workshop each day. At the end of each workshop you’ll be provided with a magic packet to draw from, if you wish, for the inspiration of your next poem. You will be free to use the suggestions from the packets in whatever way you wish, or not at all. You’ll be eligible for one 15 minute private session with Sawnie to discuss your poems. Writers at all levels of writing experience are welcome.

To register and/or for more information: Contact Us

For a complete list of upcoming events and workshops:  See our EVENTS page