Every Picture Tells a Poem

In this workshop, participants view art in a gallery or a PowerPoint projection, and respond in poetry and flash fiction. This marriage of imaginations brings together the vision of the original artist with that of the writer who views and responds to the work. While most often used in connection with poetry, ekphrasis can be an excellent technique for prose as well to create an intense setting or serve as a jumping-off-place for a story.

This two-hour program has been successful with groups from elementary age on up, including mixed-age groups such as an event at the Weatherspoon Gallery at UNCG.

To schedule this program, contact the author at valnieman@gmail.com.

The Story in the Poem

Sylvia Plath said that prose was an open hand, poetry a closed fist. A narrative in verse lets you tell a story with access to all the poetic devices of rhyme and rhythm, concentrated imagery, the richness and denseness and musicality of sound. And you can use all these tools to give the reader the reader the pleasure and suspense of a story, the chance to be immersed in another person’s life.

Even a short lyric can have a narrative, if it completes the requirements we, as story-telling humans would recognize – with characters, action, some kind of resolution. We look at narrative poems from Robert Frost to Frank X. Walker, and use family stories and other prompts to create our own.

This program has been featured at the North Carolina Writers Network and other venues.

To schedule this program, contact the author at valnieman@gmail.com.