dr. philip terman shares poetry-everything with berks bards & the pagoda writers.

toward the end of last week, dr. philip terman of western pennsylvania and clarion university's english department visited berks county. after doing a poetry reading at penn state main the previous afternoon, he made his way to goggleworks in the city of reading to do a poetry reading for berks bards. he read from his latest book called our portion and also passed around a copy of a recent book produced with bookbinder susan frakes.

two videos of some poems voiced.

and this little lady, robin irene, acted as the poet-in-training for the evening, young yet whose momma writes music and lyrics weaved from a background in poetry. in rare moments when she let out a curious squeal, we noted that she was merely testing out her lungs for future poetry. and her momma loved that her first poetry reading was by dr. terman since we studied his craft with him for ourselves in our college days.

after the main reading, the open mic for the evening kicked into gear.

two days later, dr. terman served as the guest poet for the pagoda writers in mount penn and hosted a workshop of varying prompts to write poems in the moment. more than 20 writers sat with pens scratching paper in the quieter minutes, once ideas began to stir.

three videos of some poems voiced. 

 

thank you again tremendously to marianne deery, the mayor of boyertown and innkeeper of twin turrets inn, and chris dietz of cd's place for their part in helping to make dr. terman's trip to southeastern pennsylvania all the better through a historic bed and breakfast and good eats. 

an animal poems workshop, making pet rocks with hetrick hardscaping, art-everything with artfusion 19464, etc.

understandably (even if a little sadly) more popular than the animal poems workshop at the pottstown family and home expo last weekend was the lure of making pet rocks through my the efforts of my siblings, scott and tammy hetrick of hetrick hardscaping.

but a beautiful reprieve came from a five-year-old boy named clayton who told me some stories about his dogs, and we used those to write some poetry lines. he wrote his name at the top of the poem, and i assisted with the rest of the writing since he's still getting used to the alphabet as well as using markers to spell out words. 

i described how cool it would be to make the last lines of the poem end separately, on the right, at the edge of the paper, versus sitting aligned on the left. this is a good way to illustrate how where you put words on a page can bring out their more artful value so that it's not just letters but something more visual. it was clayton who realized and commented on how the period at the end of the poem could be seen as the softball landing at the end of his final sentence, like it is thrown during a game and slants down toward the ground in falling, when not caught. i told clayton he had a great brain to think of this creative concept. you can see his poem and mind's work below here. and he happily left with his poem in hand, to show to his parents, since he went to the expo with his grandparents, knowing he'd get to hang it up on his fridge at home.

*i realized late that we were so excited when we put this poem together that we forgot to include the ''h'' in the last word, so it should read as ''hit.'' oops and a half.

anyone who wrote an animal poem earned a piece of candy from the peppermint stick candy store. winnn at life, mhmmm ! 

and here is one of those greatly loved pet rocks in the process of its glittering existence, with a glue-made mouth, to boot.

julie tonnessen of artfusion 19464 in pottstown also joined the day and had a mural continually in the works on the wall behind her table.

 and here is where the pet rock parents camped out when not at the glitter-rich station.

 more art and poem pieces.

while james mason isn't as kid-aged as some of the guests writing animal poems, he playfully tested out his own poem about rabbits. since he couldn't remember much about his old pet rabbits from childhood except that they lived in cages on his family's back porch, he used a story which i told him from my life from last year, and this inspired his poem. i noticed a bunny plopped out in hiding at the end of my garden, which is fenced in old wood. figuring it was alert and a little frightened, i walked away not to scare it more. then later that week, i came outside and noticed the bunny still in the same position and thought, ut oh. i soon grasped that it had in fact died the previous week. my lips went into the sad face pose. i drove the bunny to a creek behind the unicast park down the street and buried it in a thick patch of yellow-blooming swamp flower specimens.

identity-exploring poetry-- my traveling poetry class at the other farm brewing company in late february.

in my traveling poetry class last weekend, we tested out identity-exploring poetry, which is a theme in a healing-thinking sense for one of my upcoming classes offered through the chester county night school. we were enjoying meeting at the other farm brewing company in boyertown for classes, but we'll be away from there for a few months because of upcoming building renovations from mid-march to may. next classes will be in gilbertsville this month.

identity-exploring is such a valuable subject to explore in writing form and specifically poetry. it has so many opportunities in directions which we don't always imagine until we're in the realm of digging our way through memories sometimes long forgotten or perhaps more at the surface of our living. but the lessons we can stumble across in compiling recollections and feelings are  important ones and individual to each of us yet often with overlaps. in fact, 3 out of 4 of us wrote about our mothers in our poems.

animal poems workshop-- saturday, march 4 @ 10.30 a.m. @ the pottstown family and home expo.

i'll be teaching my animal poems workshop for children this saturday, march 4 @ 10.30 a.m. during the pottstown family and home expo. 

the workshop is free and may involve some freebie candy as well (for those who write fresh poems, of course) from the peppermint stick candy store via visit boyertown happenings. rally your kids. 

adults are welcome to write their own animal poems, too. and the expo will have muchhh more to enjoy. eye-peruse the schedule.

traveling poetry classes in march 2017 @ the marketplace cafe in giant grocery store in gilbertsville.

since  the other farm brewing company in boyertown will be closed for renovations from mid-march through may 2017, we rerouted my traveling poetry classes in march to the marketplace café inside of the giant grocery store in gilbertsville. the address is 173 holly road, gilbertsville, pa 19525.
 

we've picked dates and suggested themes of focus for march. hurrah and a half for that one.

as always, writing poems about other topics, or just observing and commenting on poetry in class, not necessarily writing any to share, is perfectly fine, too. and as usual, people are welcome to attend regularly or just once in a while, when they are in the mood for some good old poetry-hugging.

next classes--

when: sunday, march 12 @ 1 p.m. & sunday, march 26 @ 1 p.m.

where: the marketplace café inside of the giant grocery store in gilbertsville. the address, again, is 173 holly road, gilbertsville, pa 19525. the café is in the left front side of the building.

optional themes of focus:

• sunday, march 12-- abyss poems
• sunday, march 19 (*this is a newly rescheduled date)-- grocery store poems

if we have snowy or icy weather, i will update those who RSVPed to classes in advance to let them know if we are canceling or rescheduling. 

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

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

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

(having abyss photographs locally is not so easy, but i'm working on it. =)

healing & identity exploring poetry | flash fiction: spring 2017 chester county night school classes.

here are some upcoming chester county night school classes which i'm offering. pass on the proverbial word if you know anyone who may be interested in them. they are later than usual in hopes that this makes it possible for people who work full-time to more likely sign up and be involved.

you can go directly to the night school website to the class sign-ups.

healing & identity-exploring poetry

location: via chester county night school @ owen j. roberts middle school

description: poetry can be an opportunity to explore our identities through the language we use to document and examine our lives. in this sense, it’s also a means of acknowledging what we’ve been through and learning to heal in the process. students will share their own poetry to discuss, aside from poems introduced by the instructor.

when: tuesdays, march 28 through may 9, 201, 7.00 to 9.00 p.m.

cost: $89

code: 17SLW944A

flash fiction

location: via chester county night school @ phoenixville middle school

description: flash fiction paints out on the page as an often poetic form of prose and storytelling. sometimes flash fiction is 500 words or less, and it can even be barely a sentence or two. but it carries rich language in its brevity. this course includes workshopping of flash fiction by students.

note: suggested books titles will be emailed to those who sign up; these book titles are not required but are recommended.

when: mondays, march 20 through may 8, 2017, 7.00 to 9.00 p.m.

cost: $104

code: 17SLW944

if you have any questions, feel free to email me at poetrywithjenniferhetrick@yahoo.com.

for anyone curious about my traveling poetry class, you can see february scheduling here to get an idea of what it is like. i will be posting march class information shortly and work about a month ahead in scheduling each two new sets of classes.