LIVING IN MEMORY OF THE NCWN FALL CONFERENCE.

NC Writers Network is holding their 25th Fall Conference this weekend in Charlotte. (2010) I am strongly aware of the event and wish I could have attended.   I feel forced to "live in memory" with a few old photos of  the November 4-6, 2005 NCWN Fall Conference. That was "once upon a time" when NCWN West was included.

Glenda Beall, Janice Townley Moore, Nancy Simpson, Shirley Uhouse and Kathryn Stripling Byer.

Glenda Beall, Rosemary Royston, Janice Townley Moore and Nancy Simpson.

NANCY SIMPSON'S BOOK LAUNCH AT CITY LIGHTS

Nancy Simpson's long awaited collection of poems, LIVING ABOVE THE FROST LINE, had its official "launch" last Sunday afternoon at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, North Carolina. Yes, we had champagne, and we toasted Nancy and her book before she began her reading. On hand was her editor Andrea Selch, all the way from Carolina Wren Press in Durham. Spring Street Cafe offered up a great spread of reception food after the reading. Below are assorted photos from the event.

Nancy chats with novelist Sue Ellen Bridgers at the signing table.

Nancy signs a book for Dick Michener.

Andrea Selch and City Lights owner Chris Wilcox confer beside the reception table.

Gary Carden's painting, "Preaching to the Chickens" displayed above one of the reception tables.

Andrea Selch talks with Rosemary Royston.

Nancy brings intensity to her reading! Rose, sitting next to me, remarked that it was the most moving poetry she had heard in a good while.

Andrea and I join Nancy for a photo op. Nancy will be reading at Campbell Folk School on November 4.

In January, Coffee with the Poets, held at Phillips and Lloyd Books on the square in Hayesville, NC was, as usual, fun for all. Clarence Newton was featured poet. We welcomed back Estelle Rice, seen above on right, along with Joan Howard, far left and Mary Mike Keller. Most of our group moved on down to The Cottage Deli and Salad Station for lunch and more talk about writing. We were happy to welcome two visiting poets in January and hope they will return and others will join us on Wednesday.

                                                                                                                                       

Clarence Newton read to a full house last month.

Nancy Simpson enjoys hearing poetry read at CWP last month and we were all happy to see her tear herself away from her writing desk to be with us.

Glenda Barrett, author of the poetry chapbook, WHEN THE SAP RISES, published by Finishing Line Press, brought her mother to CWP in January and both enjoyed the delicious snacks served by Elizabeth Rybicki of Crumpets Dessertery.

Netwest Anthology Update

We are all looking forward to the new Netwest Anthology edited by Nancy Simpson. We are extremely pleased to have had many submissions, and so many excellent writers sending poems, essays and short stories. For those of you who are anxious to know if your work has been selected, please be patient a few more days. Our editor, who has worked diligently and put in long hours and late nights, seems to have come down with a bug, not swine flu, but has been sick this week. We expect to send out letters next week if all goes well.
Nancy says she has enjoyed reading the work of our mountain writers and she assures me we will have a terrific book. Meanwhile we have an agreement with a printer for one thousand books, first printing. We are already working on the marketing of the anthology. We'll be calling on our representatives in all counties to give us suggestions as to the best outlets for selling this book to tourists and book lovers. We will plan readings in all counties of Netwest. If your work is in the book, we hope you will take part in those readings.
The first Netwest anthology, Lights in the Mountains, stories, poems and essays by writers living in the southern Appalachians, sold out of two printings of 750 books each printing. Because we do our own editing, copy-editing, and formatting, we can produce the book less expensively than if we used a POD or small press. However it takes a bit longer to get the book out there.

This endeavor is labor intensive, but it is a labor of love. You will be pleased and proud of the anthology you all have helped produce.

I HAVE COFFEE WITH THE POETS

Imagine walking into a bookstore like this one. It's a gray February day, with storms threatening, and you've just driven in the rain from Cullowhee over Winding Stair Gap and down into the town of Hayesville. You find the town square and park in front of a place called Crumpets, also known as Phillips & Lloyd bookstore. You're early. You sit in the car waiting for the doors to open, and when they do, you enter the store where you see one of the most welcoming interiors you've beheld in quite awhile.



But wait! It gets better. There's your old friend Nancy Simpson waiting to give you a hug. You are, after all, the special guest today, the poet who drove into the clouds and down again to get here for a morning of poetry.



Here are Brenda Kay Ledford and Carole Thompson waiting to say hello.



There's fresh coffee waiting, and oh my, all sorts of goodies being spread on a table in the room where ruffled curtains and quilts adorn the windows and walls. Soon other friends from Netwest arrive--Glenda Beall, Brenda Kay Ledford, and a little later, Janice Townley Moore, to name only a few. It's COFFEE WITH THE POETS morning. Wake up, wake up, the poets all around me seem to be saying, and after my reading and question/answer session, I listen to them read their own work in the open mic portion of this monthly event sponsored by Netwest.




(Michelle Keller, who coordinates Netwest's COFFEE WITH THE POETS, introduces me before my reading.)

Janice Moore sits to the side listening.



One by one the poets read their poems. "I want these," I declare, grabbing pages out of each poet's hand, and I carry them back home with me over the mountain. When I get home I realize I can't possibly type all of these for my blog! So, out comes my trusty digital camera, and I photograph each poem. Aha, the real thing, preserved by modern technology. Even the wrinkles in the paper.

Brenda Kay Ledford in her red-hot leather suit leads off the list.





Richard Argo flashes a big smile after reading his poem about being in a tent during rain. (I remember tent days--and nights---but mine weren't so romantic.)





Idell Shook introduces me to her book, Rivers of My Heart.





And Clarence Newton! What else to say about his "Adventure"?






One of the highlights of my day is meeting Lynn Rutherford, whose comments on this blog have delighted me over the past months. A Georgia girl herself, she knows about muddy rivers, squishy mud, sandspurs, and mosquitoes!








Nancy Simpson reads an old poem made new again through revision and recently accepted by The Pisgah Review.



Carole Thompson's poem set in St. Simon's Island, shows her gift for vivid imagery. It made me want to head south to the Golden Isles, where my favorite beaches wait.




Glenda Barrett, who lives just over the state line, promised to email me some of her poems. Here is one of them. Glenda is a widely published poet, with a recent chapbook to her credit. (more about that in a later post)




Flashback


The massage therapist

moves her slick palms

up and down my leg muscles

and notices a scar on my ankle.

Did you know every cell

in our body has a memory?

Experts say that simply touching

a scar can bring back the memory

of the trauma.

I listen as she speaks,

but I’m secretly glad

no one can touch my heart.

------------Glenda Barrett

Published in The Cherry Blossom Review in summer of 2008


If you are looking for crafty wit, look no further than Dorothea Spiegel's "X ON."





And Linda Smith's voice was well-suited to the "mystery" she unfolded in her poem "Mystery Memory."






Karen Holmes read a memorable poem about the circles life makes.





And after the open mic, we made our way to the delicacies arranged on the table. Poetry makes you hungry, after all. And COFFEE WITH THE POETS will make you hungry for more such mornings when friends and lovers of poetry gather to celebrate and enjoy the magic of each and every poem.

Poets, Simpson and Moore, will read at Coffee with the Poets

Janice Townley Moore




Nancy Simpson and Janice Townley Moore are two of the NC poets who had poems included in the new bird anthology titled THE POETS GUIDE TO THE BIRDS. Both of these poets live and write in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The anthology contains only bird poems, some of them by the most noted poets writing in America today. It was edited by Judith Kitchen and Ted Kooser and published at Anhinga Press, Tallahassee, Florida, 2009.
Janice Townley Moore's poem is "Teaching the Robins." This is the title poem of her chapbook Teaching the Robins published at Finishing Line Press, 2005.
Nancy Simpson's poem is a previously unpublished poem titled "Carolina Bluebirds."The Poets Guide to the Birds is available at http://www.anhingapress.com/, http://www.amazon.com/, and at Phillips and Lloyd bookstore on the square in Hayesville, NC.

Both Simpson and Moore are featured readers of their poetry at Coffee with the Poets in Hayesville, NC at Phillips and Lloyd bookstore on March 11, 10:30 AM.
Poets reading at open mic are invited to bring their poems about birds. Everyone is invited to come and listen or read while munching on delicacies from Crumpets Dessertery.

Natalie Grant, Nancy Simpson, Janice Moore, Jayne Jaudon Ferrer, Glenda Beall at John C. Campbell Folk School, Thursday evening, November 20.

Poets and Writers reading Poems and Stories is a monthly event at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC. Two Netwest members are featured. Natalie Grant from Topton, NC and Jayne Jaudon Ferrer of Greenville, SC presented a most interesting program to an appreciative group comprised of folk school students from distant states as well as local writers in the community.

NANCY SIMPSON AMONG THE TOP TEN

Congratulations to Netwest Consultant and past Program Coordinator, Nancy Simpson. Her new weblog, LivingAbove the Frost Line is listed on Blog.com as one of the top ten blogs representing Appalachian culture.

And even more kudos to Nancy. Her poetry, and that of Netwest Consultant and NC Poet Laureate, Kathryn Stripling Byer, Fred Chappel and other outstanding mountain poets, is included in a new book edited by Merita Garin.
SOUTHERN APPALACHIAN POETRY has been published by McFarland Press as No. 20 in its Southern Appalachian Studies Series.
Read more about this book on Nancy's blog.

Nancy Simpson lives above the frost line on a mountain in Hayesville, NC where she writes free verse poetry and is working on an historical novel. Her poetry collections include Night Student and Across Water published by State Street Press.

NETWEST PROSE GROUP FACILITATOR, RICHARD ARGO ON CRITIQUE AND COMPOST

Author at end of table with
his prose group.

The Value of Critique
by Richard Argo

During my school years, a few lifetimes ago, I took a program with a professor who, in discussions on the weekly papers students were required to submit, always asked if we wanted support for our efforts or critique. This professor had the reputation for reducing students’ work to compost. So I, a forty-something, unsure of my abilities and indeed my entitlement to higher education, opted for support.
The professor dispensed this support without measure. He assured me that the submitted work was of proper length, neatly typed with references correctly listed and I could expect to receive full credit.
Life was good. This college stuff was easy – at least for the first two weeks. But then I wandered if my writing was good, was I expressing myself well, and was I right in what I said.
“Ah,” the professor said with a smile when I asked the question. “Are you now asking for critique?”
I gritted my teeth, took a deep breath and said, “Yes.”
To make a semester-long story short, he reduced my work to compost – again and again and again. However, his comments were spot on. I learned and came to appreciate critique.
When I moved to the mountains and found the Netwest group, I joined. That was thirteen years ago. I don’t think I’ve missed a dozen sessions since and I would be loathe to submit a piece of work for publication that had not first passed before the critique group.
Admittedly, and this may be more information than is necessary, there are times when the group reviews my work, that bring back memories of group therapy. Especially those times when it was my turn in the barrel. But, beyond the comments and suggestions, what are far more valuable to me are the sense I get after each session that “I can do this” and the inspiration to try.
I don’t always follow every suggestion or agree with every comment, but I know that these are given by other writers who have an objective eye for what makes writing better. It is this objectivity that I rely on rather that the well-intentioned comments of non-writing friends and relatives.
Support comes from the fact that even though the group knows me to be a poor speller with a limited knowledge of writing rules, they allow me to make comments and suggestions, too. And sometimes these suggestions are good ones because it’s all about learning. When you associate with smart people, some of it is bound to rub off.
A wise person (I believe it was Nancy Simpson) once said something like: you can learn to write on your own, but it is so much faster with a group. So, if you want to improve your writing, network with and learn from other writers – get thee to a critique group. After all, good things can grow from compost.





Richard Argo lives in Murphy, NC where he writes, teaches and leads the Netwest Critique group each month on the second Thursday. He will teach at JCCFS in early 2009. Check your catalog for dates or go online. http://www.folkschool.org/

Dr. Gene Hirsch, poetry class at JCCFS

Gene Hirsch will be conducting his twice annual poetry workshop at John C. Campbell Folk School from August 10 - 16. His workshops are unique in that they aim to consciously combine in depth, two interlacing arts: poetic expression and the humanistic expression of a person's life-world ("lebensvelt").
Gene is a physician who has devoted much of his career not only to clinical medicine, but to teaching physicians and medical students to understand the ways in which suffering people and their loved ones try to understand their misfortunes and strive to overcome. This involves the privilege of entry into the depths of human thought , feelings, strengths, vulnerabilities, and aspirations. To help patients and to teach students in this manner has been regarded as a venerated art throughout the history of Medicine.
Poets analogously strive for no less than this. They also live in others' joys and sorrows and their appreciations of nature and the lebensvelt. They understand that people think and feel not so much in polished sentences and paragraphs as in images, words, and nuances and associations and, as physicians, they attempt to capture these rich instants. While each individual, possesses human sensibilities, for poets, these are amplified, characterized, given fine instruments, practiced and honed, recognized, and above all, shared.
When a fine art is endowed with expressive instruments, it becomes also a fine craft - and so with medicine and poetry. The folk school setting, as for the art-crafts such as weaving or blacksmithing, has the ideal ambiance for this poetry experience.
In his role as a poet, Gene said, " I initiated the writing program at the folk school in 1993 and was its first Writer in Residence. Nancy Simpson, noted poet, and I initiated the NCWNW in its current form, including its critique group."
Gene has been represented in anthologies, reviews, medical and lay publications. He has written two chapbooks and has recently compiled a collection. He has been responsible for five volumes of Freeing Jonah, an anthology of poetry from workshops at the folk school and the local community. Gene's poetry students have included physicians, nurses, and social workers in hospitals and hospices. In his many years of writing, and teaching at the folk school, he has approached poetry and human dynamics from a broad perspective with an ability to listen "with the third ear", continually discovering new meanings from others.

This coming workshop will focus on developing self-awareness of one's approaches to conceiving and crafting poems, expressive styles, and individual issues of each participant. Participants will write, discuss, and meet individually with Gene for in depth discussions. There will be no critiquing or evaluating.

The workshop welcomes experienced, eager poets who bring some poems they have previously written.

YOUR POETRY: LET'S HEAR IT

Nancy Simpson is teaching a special poetry writing class at John C. Campbell Folk School July 26 - August 1, 2008.

YOUR POETRY: LET'S HEAR IT.

The focus is how sound is made in free verse poetry. It will be especially helpful to you in the writing of narrative poems and mediative poems. Poetry must be pleasing to the ear, so no matter how free we believe Free Verse is, poetry cannot sound like prose. Learn specific sound related techniques.

How and where to publish will be discussed. A list of markets will be given.

Bring you poetry project and get feedback from the instrctor.

YOUR POETRY : LET'S HEAR IT will be held in the new writing studio at Orchard House and Harvest Room. The new computer lab makes it possible to complete more work than before. Each student has his/her own writing space. Sorry, the class is limited to eight students. Pre register now if you are interested, to be sure to reserve a place. The fee of $430.00 can be cut in half to $215.00 if you live in the folk school area and if you get your name on the list in time. John C. Campbell Folk School,
Brasstown, N.C. 1 800 FOLK-SCH. http://www.folkschool.org/

WRITING FREE VERSE; SOME QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

WRITING FREE VERSE POETRY: Some Questions and Answers

Nancy Simpson, Instructor

When talking with free verse poets, I tread lightly to see if we are on the same page. Many free verse poets believe there is no form in free verse poetry and that there are no rules. I do not agree with that. I believe writers of free verse must follow the essential rules of poetry. Free verse poets have a great amount of freedom, but it is a misconception to think we can write with abandon of rules.

Yes, we must break with traditional verse. We must shun rhyme, but after that, in my opinion, free verse poets must decide carefully which guidelines of poetry they will practice.

Some of the most asked questions from my students.

1) QUESTION: If there are free verse rules, what is number one?

ANSWER: Economy of Words is the first rule of poetry. The second is Use of Diction, choice of words, choosing the best word in regard to correctness. Poets of old followed these essential rules. Free verse poets must follow these rules.

2) QUESTION: Do I have to write in sentences?

ANSWER: Yes. According to the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetics, poetry is written in sentences and lines. Poets of old followed this guideline. Free verse poets must do so. Why? Syntax of Sentence. A sentence has syntax, and it is syntax that gives your words meaning. No meaning, no understanding for your reader.


3) QUESTION: Do I have to punctuate?

ANSWER: No. This is your choice. Once in a while, in the literary magazines, I read poems that has no punctuation. However, it is as if the poem were punctuated and then the poet lifted out the punctuation marks. There is no rule, but caution would say, help the reader all you can. If there were a rule regarding punctuation, it would be: Do not lose your reader.

4) QUESTION: What is the rule for line breaks?

ANSWER: There is no rule. Line breaks are completely your responsibility and your choice. Some free verse poets work in unrhymed meter, some count syllables, some spoon feed the reader one thought on one line and the next bite on the next line. There are no rules, but there are a few guidelines.
A.) End the line with a strong word, not a weak word such as a, and, or the.

B.) Be aware of your one word lines. That one word you want to use will draw attention to itself. It had better be great, for it will provoke questions, and it will slow your reader.

C.) If your line is too wide for a narrow page, it will wrap, and you will lose what ever it was you were trying to accomplish. Editors shun the wide line that wants to wrap.

D.) If there were one rule to line breaks, it would be, work your lines.

5) QUESTION: What if I have a sentence that ends in the middle of the next line? What is the rule?

ANSWER: There is no rule against ending a sentence in the middle of a line. What you have is a caesura, a pause, and you have a golden opportunity. Caesura in a line can be a dreadful mistake, or it can be one of the most brilliant, most sophisticated moves in your free verse poetry. The guideline would be, make that line with the caesura stand alone as a thought. It is comparable to giving your reader a spoonful of something delicious that was not on the menu. You have the first sentence and the second sentence, and in-between you have a line with a period somewhere in it. Words on each side of the period should add up to something in itself. Guard against caesura lines that make no sense.

Post any questions or comments to www.netwestwriters.blogspot.com

Nancy Simpson is the author of two collections of poetry.
She is Resident Writer at John C. Campbell Folk School.

Stephen King Quote

We had a terrific workshop in Blairsville, GA today with some very talented people. Thanks to Carol Crawford and Nancy Simpson for their instruction and to Carole Thompson and all those who helped with cleanup.

I think Stephen King says it best, Writers.

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work."
Stephen King

New Georgia Rep for Netwest

My name is Carole Thompson. I am pleased to be a member of the North Carolina Writers Network. My husband, Norm, and I moved to Blairsville, GA 18 years ago. Prior to that, we lived on St. Simons Island for 10 years, moving there after he retired as a career pilot in the US Air Force.
Network West Coordinator, Glenda Beall, asked me about becoming one of her GA Representatives. Glenda devotes so much of her own time working hard promoting programs and literary opportunities for writers in our area. I have accepted this opportunity to be of some assistance to her and her other representatives, as we work toward the goals laid down for this Network West chapter.

. Glenda thought I might tell you something about myself. If you were to ask me, “Who are you?” my first answer would have to be:”I am a wife, a mother of four children, a grandmother of five and great-grandmother of two.” Norm and I are celebrating our 56th anniversary this month. We wanted to do something special, so we’re visiting friends in England and then we’re all taking that train that zips under the English Channel and pops up somewhere near Paris! This is going to be a great adventure. I’m happy pursuing many interests right around my home, too. Most of my adult life I have worked in oil painting, particularly portraits. I also love to read, quilt and do crossword puzzles. Norm and I sing in the Mountain Community Chorus, and in our own church choir.

About 8 years ago, a friend invited me to take a writing class with her at Tri-County College in Murphy, N.C. I became a student in one of Nancy Simpson’s poetry classes. She totally liberated me by explaining the concept of free verse. I hung on her every word. In her next class, she pulled stories out of me like a painless dentist. The next year one of my poems was published in an anthology. After that, I submitted a short Christmas story to a well known Catholic magazine, and nearly had a heart attack when they bought it. Nancy Simpson was the first one I called. She continues to be my mentor and friend. Network West has so many wonderful, talented members!

KATHRYN STRIPLING BYER READS POEMS AT YOUNG HARRIS COLLEGE

--Nancy Simpson

What better way to celebrate poetry on the first day of National Poetry Month than to hear a poet laureate read her original poems? No better way for me and for other Netwest members who drove over to Young Harris, Georgia, on April 1st to hear N.C. Poet Laureate Kathryn Stripling Byer read her poems.

Kathryn Stripling Byer is the 2008 Byron Herbert Reece Speaker , and she visited the college especially to work with students. In the afternoon, she met with them in Wilson Hall and read some poems.
They had been studying her poems in English class, and they asked many questions. She asked them questions too, such as , “What else have you been reading?”

In the evening, Kathryn Stripling Byer read her poems to a packed auditorium of students, faculty, and citizens of the community. She read from a number of her collections, showing her development from a young poet interested in family and home to a mature poet struggling with issues of humanity, life and death.

Collections Kathryn Stripling Byer read from were: The Girl In the Midst of the Harvest, Wildwood Flower, Black Shawl, Catching Light, and Coming to Rest. Her books can be found in all mountain libraries and can be bought in most area bookstores. The Craftshop at John C. Campbell Folk School has a full selection of her books.

Again, she was open to questions and there were many asked. Bettie M. Sellers, former Georgia Poet Laureate asked her to tell the students about her appointment as Poet Laureate of NC. She talked mainly about her visits throughout the Old North State and about her Poet Laureate Web Site set up by the NC Arts Council (ncarts.org) where she discusses and promotes poetry and where she has featured poems by North Carolina's poets.

Kathryn Stripling Byer said her most important responsibility as Poet Laureate is to continue to write about issues that matter and to continue to celebrate and defend language itself.

COFFEE WITH THE POETS

Coffee with the Poets is held in Hayesville, NC
the 4th Wednesday of each month, on the town square
at Phillips and Lloyd’s Book Store.

On March 26th, Linda M. Smith was the featured reader.
Michelle Keller coordinated the event. The audience was
made of Hayesville folks and some visitors from
Andrews and from across the Georgia line. Coffee,
tea, pastry, and poems --all delicious.

During the open mic session, award winning poet
Brenda Kay Ledford read a newly completed poem.

NCWN West Consultant, Nancy Simpson
read her most recently published poem,
“ The Ghost of Candide” which is dedicated to former
Georgia Poet Laureate, Bettie M. Sellers. Simpson
said the poem was written in 1978 and finally, after
30 years, it has found it’s home in print at
Cooweescoowee Review at Will Rogers University
in Oklahoma.

Glenda Barrett, whose chapbook, WHEN THE SAP RISES,
is forthcoming in June 2008 from Finishing Line Press,
also read one poem in the open mic reading,
as did Maren O. Mitchell and others.

Mark your calendar on the 4th Wednesday in April,
and come enjoy Coffee with the Poets. All practicing poets
are welcome to read a poem in the open mic reading.
Glenda Beall. NCWN West Program Coordinator is the
founder of this innovative program.

NEW WRITING STUDIO. COME WRITE

NEW WRITING STUDIO AT
JOHN C. CAMPBELL FOLK SCHOOL
--Nancy Simpson

The new writing studio is located on the grounds
at Orchard House, John C. Campbell Folk School (JCCFS)in Brasstown, North Carolina. The school itself is 83 years
old, world famous for devotion to arts and crafts The writing program only 13 years old, but the writing studio is brand spanking new.

Recently, I had an opportunity to teach the first class in the new studio, with state of the art computers, printer,copier, and all a writer would need including paper, paper.

My feet hardly touched ground all week as I watched my students working. Each had a writing space with their own computer and printer set up. We had an oval table to use for critiquing sessions, and we had the living room of Orchard House to sprawl out and relax in for teaching sessions and class discussions.

I’ve been teaching writing at the folk school for years,but I have never before seen such a large amount of writing started and finished in one week. The school itself, with sparks of creative energy popping, is a magical place to begin with. The new studio is a welcoming and conducive place for writers.

I invite you to come write with us for a week. If you have already taken writing classes at the folk school,come back as soon as you can. You may walk on air as
I have been doing. You will write, I promise.

If you have never been to the folk school, give it serious thought. Get a catalog, read the class descriptions,make your choice. Scholarships are available based on
financial need . The school offers half price to those living in specific mountain counties. Call the toll free number,check out the web site or e mail me with your questions at nance@dnet.net. Phone. 1800 FOLK-SCH.




John C. Campbell Folk School
Six SUMMER WRITING CLASSES:

May 25-30, 2008 - Spinning Words Into Gold with
Maureen Ryan Griffin. This class will jump start
your writing and and will provide tools to keepyour words flowing. Tap into the Who, Why, When, Where,What and How of Writing. All levels welcome.


June 22- 28, 2008 TOOLS OF THE TRADE, PROFESSIONAL WRITING
with Wendy Webb. The focus is on the short story, novel,and play writing.

June 29-July 5, 2008 FICTION, SHORT AND LONG with Bobbie Pell. Explore the nuggets of your experience that are universal and pop them into your fiction. All levels are welcome.

July 6-11, 2008 WRITING LIFE STORIES with Vickie Hunt.Make headway in creating a short story, personal essay or a memoir essay. All levels are welcome.

July 13-19, 2008 TO BE CONTINUED with Ruth Zehfuss. Focus on getting started
and learning techniques to keep you writing.

July 27-August 1, 2008 YOUR POETRY. LET’S HEAR IT,with Nancy Simpson. Learn to make your poetry sing with sound. Learn how to encapsulate emotion in your poems.
Class is for practicing free verse poets. How and where to publish will be discussed and a list of markets will be given.

See catalog for complete class listing and class descriptions

FORMS OF FREE VERSE POETRY Part III

Hello Fellow Netwest Writers. This is the final part of the talk I gave Oct. 21, 2007 at Young harris College at the state meeting of the Georgia Poetry Society. For the sake of learning, the speech was adapted and is presented in three parts. Please feel free to share this with others, but do not reprint or publish without my permission. Some have asked to print a copy for study. Yes to that. -- Positively, Nancy Simpson

Forms of Free Verse Poetry Part III

I believe you can look in any poetry book and identify a fee verse poem without reading it. If there is an absence of regular stanzas, and if end words do not have a rhyme scheme, it is free verse. I believe not only can you tell at a glance that a poem is written in free verse form, you can guess whether it is a meditative poem, a narrative poem or a lyric poem.

If the poem has questions marks, it is meditative, the mind in the act of thinking, driven by an idea.

If it is a long poem, more than one page, with the name of character and maybe some dialogue, without reading, you can guess that it is a narrative poem, driven by the poet’s desire to tell a story.

If the poem is a short, first person, and if it snags your interest with images of a place, you can guess it might be a lyric poem.

What difference does it make? First and foremost a poet must write, but once there are words on a page, a poet will ask, sometimes somewhat surprised, “What do I have here?”

If your words show the mind in the act of thinking, with one or more questions, or if you have used the phrase, “I Know” or “I think”, for certain, you are writing in meditative form.

If you have a story with all its components: character, setting, plot and theme, you are working
in narrative form. Perhaps you have dialogue between a married couple as Robert Frost did in his great narrative poem, “The Death of the Hired Hand.” Or you may only have a narrator’s voice describing and telling what happened.

For me, the lyric poem is the most fascinating free verse form. The lyric poem has been around since ancient days. It changed its focus in different ages. Its definition has evolved. Today, the lyric poem is one of the most prized forms of free verse poetry among literary editors, perhaps because the lyric tightly compresses language, it is more brief, and it never covers more than a page.

In my years of study, practicing, publishing and teaching poetry, this is how I came to identify and define the lyric form: A lyric poem has three components. It must have all three.

1) A lyric poem is a moment in time, a frozen moment, a scene, or something like a short video blip, not the whole story. The reader will always know where and when the poem takes place.

2) A lyric poem is a personal experience, driven by emotion, with words drenched in emotion.

3) A lyric poem has a moment of knowing something not known before or a moment of remembering truth known but forgotten.

The poet who understands the difference in free verse forms, I believe, would be a poet who could more skillfully bring a new poem to completion.

A meditative poem is driven by intelligence. The poet must find a way to hook the reader. “Moon” and “The Death of the Hat” by Billy Collins are good examples of the meditative poem.

The narrative poem is driven by the poet’s desire to tell a story. In writing a narrative poem, the poet must work the lines more carefully than any other form, cut, cut, and prune away all the dead wood, to avoid the relentless impulse of prose.

The lyric poem is driven by emotion, with the poet’s main responsibility being to to lead the reader to the moment of knowing. If there is no moment of knowing, it is not a lyric poem.

Your best poems may have elements of all three forms, for the best poems connect with the reader on a sensory level, an emotional level and on an intellectual level.

Here at the end, I must say writing free verse poetry does not end here. There is more, more
free verse forms, more topics to discuss, such as “Where do I break the line”? More for future study.

Meanwhile, pull out your writing folder , write, study, revise and write some more. Present yourself as a practicing poet, and keep practicing poetry.

Nancy Simpson

Any Questions?

MORE ON WRITING FREE VERSE POETRY Part II

Hello fellow Netwest Writers. Below is part of a talk I gave Oct. 21, 2007, Young Harris College, at the state meeting of the Georgia Poetry Society. Please feel free to share this with others, but do not reprint or publish without my permission. 2-4-08, Nancy Simpson

continued Part II

4) Master poets from the past fine-tuned the sound of their poems. Free verse poets now have a hard job. After avoiding meter and rhyme, we still have to make our poems sing with sound. Our poems must be pleasing to the ear.

Sound in free verse is accomplished with different techniques. We use of alliteration. Our best alliteration is welcome, but again, alliteration seems to be not favored by the Literary Magazine editors of today. What is more popular today is the use of consonance, where you repeat the consonant sound in the middle or at the end of the word. Assonance, much appreciated now, is a more subtle way to build sound. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds such as (this example using long i sound)
like a line of white mice.

Another way free verse poets build cadence into their poems is to prefer and to use one syllable words. When you use one syllable words, each syllable gets a beat. Beat is the foundation of music. The use of multi syllabic words in the same line can ruin a good poem fast. If you have a beautiful word you cannot part with, try using it as a title. If you insist on using multi syllabic words in the body of the poem, go back and hone the poem to mostly one and two syllable words. Do this to secure the sound.

5) The poets of old connected with their reader on a sensory level. There is no better way to hook your reader then to use sensory images. Why does it work now the same as it worked then? Think of it. A
new born human has no other way to learn, for years, except to take in information through the senses - sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. As a human, if nothing terrible happens, we use our senses every day
of our lives, until the moment we die. There is no better, no faster way to connect with your reader than through sensory images.

6. The poets of old connected with their reader on an emotional level? Free verse poets must also make that connection. How is it done? Choice of words, words drenched in emotion: When the reader reads these words, they feel emotionally connected. “family”, “mother”, “frown”, “mock”, “smack”, “nothing remains”, “wreck”, “battered on one knuckle”, “prison,” “divorce papers”, Word choice. That is how you put emotion into your poems.

7. The poets of old connected with their reader on an intellectual level. Free verse poets must also make that intellectual connection. The best way is not to tell the reader everything. What keeps people reading poetry today is the joy they find in being able to use their own intelligence, to be able fill in the gaps of what is not said, and to be able to say, “Yes. I know.”

--Nancy Simpson Part III will be posted 2-5-08 on this site

What is Free Verse Poetry? Part I

Hello fellow Netwest Writers. Below is part of a talk I gave Oct. 21, 2007 at Young Harris College at the state meeting of the Georgia Poetry Society. I am happy to share it with you. Please feel free to share this with others, but do not reprint or publish without my permission. For the sake of learning, the speech has been adapted and presented here in three parts. Positively, Nancy Simpson 2-3-08

WHAT IS FREE VERSE PORTRY? Part I

The best “What is Poetry” definition yet known to me is Laurence Perrine’s definition (from the Sound and Sense textbook) in which Perrine said, “Poetry is language that says more and says it with more intensity than ordinary language.” Perrine also said, “ Poetry is as universal as language and almost as ancient.” He said, “The most primitive people have used poetry and the most civilized have cultivated it.” I celebrate Perrine's understanding. I celebrate being among fellow poets who are practicing and cultivating poetry.

In all ages and in all countries and even now, this day, poetry is being written. The most popular form of poetry being written throughout the world today is free verse. As someone who has studied, practiced, published and taught poetry for thirty years, I will do my best to share what I understand about free verse. Free Verse has been a recognizable form since Walt Whitman, called the Father of Free Vese, published Leaves of Grass in 1855, 153 years ago.

Free verse is a poetic form in which the line does not conform to rules of meter and rhyme. The purpose of free verse is to break with tradition and that means to shun meter and rhyme. After saying that, we still have to ask the question, What is free verse?

I stongly believe the writer of free verse has much freedom, but it is a misconception to think that the poet can write with total abandon of rules. From study, practice and a publishing career, I am certain that except for breaking with traditional meter and rhyme, and a few other minor changes, the other guidelines that poets of old followed are the guidelines we must follow today. Here they are:

1) A poem is made of tightly compressed language. This has been true since the beginning of written poetry. As free verse poets, we must practice economy of words. If you can’t cut, if you can’t
prune, as they say, if you cannot joyfully and willfully give up your words, my advice to you must be, go no farther in writing poetry, for economy of words is poetry’s first rule.

2) Poetry is written in sentences and lines. The master poets practiced this. It is a guideline we must follow. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetics says “Poetry is cast in sentences and lines. Prose is written in sentences and paragraphs.” Why is writing in sentences essential? Syntax, for it is syntax of sentence that gives our poems their meaning. If you want your reader to understand, write in sentences.

3) Traditional poets made poems with comparisons, using figures of speech such as metaphor, simile, understatement, and hyperbole. Free verse poets must make fresh metaphors. Similes do not seem to be appreciated by poetry editors these days, but the task for poets is still the same: Use metaphorical language in your poems.

--Nancy Simpson (Part II More Guidelines For Writing Free Verse will be posted here tomorrow.)