“Knowing, Making, and Judging”: A Three-Day Poetry Workshop
Slated for August 9—11
Payment: 15000 naira
Date: August 9—11 (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
Time: 4pm—6pm
Venue: Online.
Email: ogunyemiernest@gmail.com
Account Details: OGUNYEMI ERNEST OLATUNBOSUN. 0434779782. GT Bank.
You have probably guessed: I filched that title from an essay by W. H. Auden, the essay appears in The Dyer’s Hand, a phrase Auden filched from Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 111.” (Everybody steals in this business, as Eliot puts it, “No one has his meaning alone.”)
You may have missed it, though, but I shifted something in what I stole: “Knowing” comes before “Making” here. If you have read the essay by Auden, it is easy to tell that we use the words to different effect. I believe that Knowing (knowing what truth is, what beauty is, what meaning is, what poetry is) precedes the making of poetry. Or, to say it smartly, you have to get to a point where you define your terms as an artist, as a poet. Auden meant, I think, making art and then knowing whether what you have made is “authentic.”
I chose the whole phrase because it gets at what I intend to achieve with this workshop, the scope of the thing. In the course of gathering materials for the workshop (of finding an angle, as I like to put it), I began to see—especially with the Bringhurst essay, “Everywhere Being Is Dancing”—that a poem is a way of knowing, a way of being known. It is both knowledge, a type of knowledge, a primal kind, and the way that knowledge is reached. It is impossible to separate the way a poem knows from what it knows. This is why, on day one, we’ll look at ”Poetry and Truth.”
“What is truth?” Pilate asked Jesus. Most bad poems, I have come to this conclusion, are simply false. That is what is wrong with them: they are not true. They are not true to the way things are in the world. They are not true to the logic of the world. (But what does that mean?) Truth is bound with patience. Pilate asked what truth is but was not patient enough to hear the answer. What is poetic truth? What is feeling in poetry? Feeling in poetry is close to truth in poetry, if they are not synonymous. It is when we have come to a “conclusion” or a sketchy “definition” (I am not certain there is one, but we can start from somewhere) about what “poetic truth” is that we can know poetry’s potential.
Day two: William Logan said something I like; that poetry is “the imagination of language.” What exactly do we mean when we say a poet imagines? Does a poet imagine the same way a novelist does? What is the difference between how a poet imagines and how a short story writer imagines? Is there a difference? That is one question we will look at under “Making.” What constitutes the poet’s imagination? What are the tools a poet imagines with? What tools are at the disposal of the poet? Of course, language is the focus. But also, ambiguity and precision. I find the two important, because the language of a poem exists between both poles. And I am interested in examining how to find a balance.
The last day, “Judging,” we will be looking at ”Poetry and Criticism.” I have not seen a lot of workshops that connect criticism to the work of writing poems. (I have not seen any.) Yet T. S. Eliot made the bold statement that the reason why some poets are superior to others is that they have a better critical faculty. That sounds egotistical, but it is true. However, what is the “critical faculty”? Eliot clarifies in “The Function of Criticism,” one of the essays we will be reading for the class. For me, drafting involves serious criticism; even more, editing is a form of criticism. All of this hinges on making judgements.
These three days are going to be days of intense discussions and providing angles. It is not meant to “teach”: I have nothing to teach anyone. But I am interested in looking at poems and seeing how they work. And I want to be able to introduce people to some necessary materials and offering my perspective on those materials. If I managed, instead of educating, to stimulate—that would be an achievement.
The workshop is slated for August 9—11 (Friday to Sunday): 4 pm each day. It is going to be a two-hour workshop per day. Each participant may bring in three poems to the workshop. I will offer feedback on each of those poems. We may workshop one or two of them in class. The workshop is priced at 15000 naira. Because we have a lot of materials to walk through (although I intend to break them down into “Required Readings” and “Optional Readings,” with at least four required essays per day), it would be best if registration could be done by the 5th of August, so I can send the materials in time.
I taught a similar workshop last year, and I taught it free for the most part (only one person paid), which is totally fine. Thankfully, this year, a gracious somebody (a subscriber to this newsletter) has paid for three participants. Please write to me if you feel the need to support a few young poets: ogunyemiernest@gmail.com. Find my account details at the head of this letter. And below, find the scheme for the program.
I look forward to doing this thing I love with you. I will make the announcement for scholarship applications (if I find I cannot make the selections on my own: I already have one or two people in mind), I will make the announcement on X, or here. If there are more sponsors, I will have to call for applications for scholarships. Please look out.
Knowing: Poetry and Truth
What is “truth”? What is “truth” in poetry?
What does poetry make happen?
Making: Poetry and Imagination
What is imagination in poetry?
Imagination as thinking as style: Coming upon a voice.
Ambiguity and precision.
Judging: Poetry and Criticism
Editing as a form of criticism.
Drafting under the shadow of the mind.
Going Out: New Frontiers?
Please find the workshop syllabus here, with the list of materials we will be using. I will send the materials listed there to every participant once they have registered. ♦️