Poemscaping: Dating Your Details

Surprise the Line is a community poetry workshop based in Long Beach, California, that welcomes participants to our virtual meetings from anywhere in the world. We believe that everyone can write, and that the practice of writing allows us to cultivate a deep relationship with our internal self and our external world. Our workshops are nurturing for the soul and stimulating for the mind. It is our mission to spread the joy of creativity everywhere, one line at a time. Website: surprisetheline.com

Surprise the Line

Special one-time writing workshop featuring guest teacher Matthew Feinstein guiding us to boldly revise our struggling poems.

<h3>Once In a Moon! Guest Teacher Workshop</h3><h3>Poemscaping: Dating Your Details with Matthew Feinstein</h3><p>Surprise the Line presents a special one-time guest workshop led by experienced writers on a topic of their choosing every first Saturday of the month. <strong>This month, you will learn a bold and effective strategy to revise your working poems!</strong></p><p>This revision workshop helps poets create new horizons for their work by creating a no-pressure environment where trimming a poem leads to its rebirth.</p><h2>What We’ll Do Together:</h2><p>In this workshop, participants will learn how to systematically revise a poem that they have been struggling with. They will do this by first pointing out and letting go of details they have become attached to so they can look at the piece with a fresh perspective. Then they will trim the poem to find what shines. Finally, they will elaborate—turning that shiny poem even into something even more radiant.</p><p>As they say, "the devil is in the details." Poems rely on "luminous details" (Ezra Pound) to shine. We will consider "dating our details" as a method of revision. Using a poem you're working on as your guide, consider:</p><ul><li>Details you're married to</li><li>Details you want to get to know more/develop/work with</li><li>Details you want to dump</li><li>Details you're willing to dump but may come back to in the future depending on how the poem is going</li></ul><p>Revising in this way is a fun way to get to know our poems better so we can create a deeper relationship with our reader.</p><h2>What You’ll Get From This Workshop:</h2><p>•	A toolkit for revising poems you can replicate anytime</p><p>•	A fresh perspective on a poem you’ve been stuck on</p><p>•	Examples of the revision process with model texts</p><h2>What You'll Need:</h2><ul><li>At least one poem you have been working on that you are willing to play around with </li><li>Willingness to "mess it up" in order to find more clarity and direction!</li><li>Openness to learning more about your own work</li></ul><p></p><h3>About the Teacher:</h3><p>Matthew Feinstein is a poet, educator and editor who holds a BA in English – Creative Writing from California State University, Long Beach and is pursuing an MFA at Randolph College. He has served as a supplemental instructor in English at California State University, Dominguez Hills. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Drunk Monkeys, Rejection Letters, Heavy Feather Review and elsewhere. He is the founding editor of Plum Recruit. </p>

Our {communityGuidelinesLink} describe the sort of content we prohibit on Eventbrite. If you suspect an event may be in violation, you can report it to us so we can investigate.

To report other categories of prohibited or illegal content, submit {link}

Poemscaping: Dating Your Details

More events from Surprise the Line

Discover more events from Surprise the Line, from Arts to other experiences you might love.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.

Poemscaping: Dating Your Details

More events from Surprise the Line

Discover more events from Surprise the Line, from Arts to other experiences you might love.

More Arts events

Browse more Arts events with different dates, prices, and formats to find your next great experience.

Still looking for the right event?

Explore all online events to browse and filter by date, category, and more.