by Stephen Dafoe
Morinville poet and author Christopher Raine will be leading a Poetry Club at the Morinville Community Library starting this weekend.
The club will meet Saturdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the library with the Mar. 10 and 17 outings set aside for a poetry workshop and the Mar. 24 event scheduled as an open mic and performance.
Raine said the work of a poet can be isolating, and that the club offers an opportunity for poets and would-be poets to share their work.
“We are offering the chance to share your work with other like-minded individuals in a forum that is designed to enhance and nurture your abilities,” he said. “In short, we offer a supportive environment and a way for you to share your work with our members and eventually, your community.”
Saturday’s workshop at the library will offer open discussion on multiple techniques to assist writers in making their poetry both insightful and unique.
“We will look at excerpts from various poets and discuss what makes their work successful and what traps to avoid,” Raine explained. “We will suggest exercises in these various techniques, allowing for individual creativity and growth.”
One aspect of the upcoming workshops, open to all skill levels 15 and up, is that it will offer an opportunity to receive productive feedback from fellow writers. Raine said ultimately, that will create a forum where poets may read their works aloud, in public, perhaps for the first time.
An opportunity to do that will happen Mar. 24 with the first open mic event.
“Reading aloud in public can be difficult,” Raine said. “It is even more difficult for one to share subject matter that is deeply personal and creative. By providing feedback on ones work prior to reading, supportive fellowship, and the time to polish works, we hope to give our workshop attendees the confidence to succeed.”
In short – the club is looking to build on whatever it is brought to the workshops.
“The open-mic will happen after our group members have performed their pieces,” Raine said, noting the library will provide a place to make participants voices heard. “If you want to say something, say it in a way that will make us think and feel. Most importantly, and this is something I can’t emphasize enough, show us something honest.”
Raine said there would be a sign-up sheet at the start of the event for individuals outside of the group, where they will provide hard-copies of their work before reading.
Open-mic pieces will be subject to approval (for language/content) before public reading.
Raine said while he doesn’t personally believe in censorship, speakers have to respect that a library is a public place.
For more information, visit MorinvilleLibrary.ca.
