Waupaca library, arts board sponsors free, online programs
The Waupaca Community Arts Board Poetry Committee and Waupaca Area Public Library are co-sponsoring two free online workshops this month about how to write short poems.
The workshops will be taught by award-winning Wisconsin poet Paul Wiegel.
Originally from Green Bay, he now lives and writes from his home near the Fox River in Berlin.
The focus of the workshops will be how to craft tightly worded poems.
“Short Poems: Fewer Words, Bigger Ideas” will be held from 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21.
In this session, class members will work on writing one short free verse poem of less than 10 lines.
They will look at examples of short poems, discuss how they work well and use those examples as guides in writing their own poems.
The second workshop, “How Haiku Fits Into Your Poetry Toolkit,” will take place from 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28.
During this session, class members will build on what they learned in the first workshop.
They will focus on the Japanese form of haiku.
Attendance at the first workshop is not required for the second one.
Both workshops will include participants brainstorming ideas, determining which language matters most and drafting poems that get to the heart of the poem’s core meaning.
They will also have opportunities to share ideas with others and provide feedback, or simply work at their own pace.
For the past five years, Wiegel has been writing and performing on-demand poems as a street poet on his 1957 Smith Corona manual typewriter.
He has done this at art galleries, farm markets and festivals, including at a past Arts on the Square.
His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in “Hermeneutic Chaos Journal,” “The English Journal,” “Yellow Chair Review” and “Eunoia Review.”
Wiegel was the winner of the John Gahagen Poetry Prize in both 2014 and 2015.
He placed first in the Lakefly Writers Conference Poetry Contest.
While the poetry workshops are free, registration is required for each one in order to receive the Zoom link.
Visit www.waupacaarts.org/short-poems-workshop for registration links and more information.