traveling poetry classes in december 2017 at mario's pizza in boyertown & dunkin' donuts in phoenixville: focusing on richard blanco & alice notley's poems.

december's traveling poetry classes will focus on the works and styles of richard blanco and alice notley. blanco wrote and read the presidential inauguration poem for our country in 2013 and did so from a very unique background for getting up to share his words in front of the entire u.s. here is a link to this poetry performance. notley is a poet i recall from years ago because my mentor told me years ago that my poetry sometimes shaped a bit like hers as well as that of frank o'hara. but frank o'hara's poetry may be a focus for a future class.

we'll practice reading their poems out loud and will discuss their styles, themes, curious phrasings, and anything else which stands out to us in their poetry. and testing out poems inspired by theirs to bring to class to share is welcome.

during the first class of the month, we'll meet at mario's pizza in boyertown. the second class will be at the dunkin' donuts in phoenixville. dress plenty warmly in case it's chilly or drafty. ya just never know with temperature nuances.

next classes–

when: sunday, december 3 @ 1 p.m. & sunday, december 17 at 1 p.m.

where: for december 3, mario's pizza is at 159 south reading avenue, boyertown, pa 19512; for december 17, dunkin' donuts is at 218 nutt road, phoenixville, pa 19460

optional themes of focus:

•     sunday, december 3–richard blanco-inspired poems
•     sunday, december 17–alice notley-inspired poems

cost: $20 per student, per class (we usually meet for 2 hours or more)

at either class, any other subject is always welcome for the sharing, including other variations of creative writing, too. we pick out the poetry in whatever we read and hear. bringing a few copies of your writings to share is helpful so everyone can read them or share. but just having your original copy to read from is okay, too.

if we ever have oddly inconvenient weather around the time of classes, i will update those who RSVPed to classes in advance to let them know if we are canceling, rescheduling, or relocating.

if you have any questions, feel free to reach out via poetrywithjenniferhetrick at yahoo dot com.

and if you know anyone who may be interested in our class, feel free to share this blog content onward.

also, if there is anyone who may want to join our class but lives in another area across berks, chester, and montgomery counties, we sometimes travel to a good variety of different places, so let us know, and we can see about planning classes closer to you.

rita dove poems over pizza.

the writings of former u.s. poet laureate rita dove were a welcome focus in my traveling poetry class this past weekend at argento's pizza & family restaurant in boyertown. one student's poem involved a style adaptation and memory of the state (nebraska) of our previous class' focus, former. u.s. poet laureate ted kooser, too.

we don't limit ourselves to just poetry necessarily (other angles of approach in creative writing and experimentation on the page are quite allowed, to be more all-encompassing) or in the style of the writers' whose works we carve our thoughts through, but it has been that way lately, which is easily fine, too. and some of us don't necessarily write for each class. we just share reflections and offer perspectives to ponder across stanzas. so it's a nice balance, based on whatever we all want to and feel inspired to write or say or just hear.

ted kooser poems at dunkin' donuts. what a pairing.

we swam our way through the words of former u.s. poet laureate ted kooser in my traveling poetry class this past sunday at the dunkin' donuts in limerick. and because we hadn't met since earlier in the month,  we especially enjoyed it.

we even passed around one of his books to pick out random poems to share reading-wise for the ears. his documentation of the most natural and basic of things around us, done so vividly and like a short film for our minds, is so easy to love.

i also record the poetry-ish lines which come out of my students but are 

not written down by them. somebody has to write good lines down, damn it.