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Anger and Ecstasy

Poetry. What a flexible vessel. It allows us wax rhapsodic or to churn a burning rant. It even tolerates contradictory emotions side by side within a stanza or even (gasp!) within a line. In this writing intensive workshop, we’ll read poems by Merwin, Swir and Oliver that hold this delicious tension, then find ways to marry anger and ecstasy in our own poems. Are you livid? Thrilled? Of course you are. Bring both fluencies, a pen and lots of paper.

All is Write With the World: A Writing Workshop Where Nature Meets Human Nature

How do you deepen your relationship with the world around you? Put a pen in your hand! In this writing playshop (not a workshop!) Rosemerry helps participants explore both inner and outer landscapes and discover the connections between the two. We’ll read other “nature poets,” go outside to gather, write and share. For writers, non-writers, people who think they hate poetry and those who see it everywhere they turn. 

I Want to Speak: An Interactive Poetry Program for Families

Adults and kids sometimes wonder if they speak the same language. This two-hour program helps us to put our words in each other’s mouths and play with new ways to communicate. Ideally, participating kids can write by themselves, but there are ways to include pre-literate kids, too. It would be great to have paper table cloths or large sheets of paper covering the tables that we can write on.

Inviting the Wise One In

Inside each of us is a wise, wise voice that helps us to make decisions and understand the world. For many reasons, that voice can be smothered and shushed, but it doesn’t go away. How do we tap into that voice? How do we look inside for leadership, guidance and comfort? Poet and editor Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer leads this journey into the self with warmth and humor, helping us re-connect with our own wisdom though writing.

Falling in Love with Language

Language is the building block of poetry—its sounds, rhythms and connotations yield innumerable ways to express our heart songs. When we give in to the words themselves, they lead us on a path of discovery. So many surprises! In this playshop, through verbal and written exercises, we let the language take the lead and see where we go! 

Musing: How to Write Through Writer’s Block

Ever been stared down by a blank page? For centuries, poets have depended on their “muse,” a creative spirit that spirals into the body and leads the writer toward discovery and original thought. But equally as mythical and real is the “writer’s block,” an inability to get anything out of your hands and onto paper. This playshop (more fun than a “work”shop) consists mostly of free writing, talking about the writing process, and finding writing prompts to blast the block and invoke the muse. Having dealt with her own fair share of writer’s block, Trommer has managed to publish four books of poetry, a book of essays, hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles and a book on Telluride history.

Poetry for Everybody: Even You

What is a poem, anyway? Does it have to rhyme? What are the rules? For so many people, poetry is a mysterious, not entirely pleasurable genre. How do we read a poem? And how do we write one? This playshop focuses on the building blocks of poetry, and takes a look at poetic forms, including sonnets, sestinas, haiku and others, to give a basic foundation for people who want to know more about poetry and write it themselves.

Um, Do You Really Want to Hear My Poem? Poetry Performance 101

Do you get nervous when you get up to read your work? Turn those sweaty palms and pounding heart into a stronger, more engaging, more thoughtful performance. We'll explore tools for managing nervousness, analyzing the audience, using gestures, varying your voice and honing your platform skills. Lots of hands-on work with reading for others. Please bring a short poem you'd like to polish for presentation. This is a chance to make your poems really sing--after all, poetry is an aural and oral art.

The Mystery of Grief: Tools for Moving Forward

You’ve heard writing about a loved one’s death will help heal the black pit in your belly. “Yeah, sure, I’ll write about it,” you think. But you don’t. Or maybe each time you sit to write, the blank page stares you down. Or perhaps every word you choose seems flatly inadequate. “One fear is that whatever you write won’t be good enough,” says instructor Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. “But it’s not what you’ve written that matters so much, it’s the process of writing that heals. As we strive to find language that meets our emotions, we lean deeper into self-discovery. Be prepared to surprise yourself. We won’t find answers. We may find a path.”

Wordcrafting: It’s More Than What You Say

It comes down to words—which ones you choose to use and how you then string them together. What’s the best way to say what you mean? How do you make your text sing from the page to the ear? How do you write so compellingly others will want to devour your work? This workshop focuses on words and cadence: the building blocks of all writing. Drawing on lessons from linguistics, poetics and rhetoric, we’ll practice dozens of tips that apply to all genres. From our playful practice, expect serious improvement. Bring a paragraph, page or poem you’re willing to resculpt. Bring chocolate, too. All levels of writers welcome.

What’s a Metaphor For?

With a single metaphor, we can change a line, a poem, a room, a mood. This literary device allows us to hold up a mirror to the outer and inner worlds and see more than one reflection. We’ll delve into the realm of the concrete, read Clifton and Blake, and write and write and write, playing with the figurative world and making new connections.

Finding a Framework for our Words: How to move beyond singsongy rhyme

End rhyme is marvelous, but there are so many other ways to make a poem cohere. We’ll explore myriad ways to use rhyme besides at the end of the line. We’ll also look at various unrhymed forms that use syllabics, repetition, sound or syntax to hold a poem together. A workshop for those who are looking for new ways to structure their lines.