What is a masterclass? How does a
workshop actually work? This "live poetry lab" at Writers and Readers
Week gave us some insight into what happens, although as Chris Price (left) pointed
out in her introduction, the workshop process in a creative writing class
usually develops trust over a period of time and doesn't take place in front of
a theatre full of strangers. However the audience at the Embassy was very
supportive of the three brave writers whose work had been selected by Bill
Manhire out of 250 poems submitted ("lots of really good stuff,"
he said. "Lots of really dodgy stuff.") These
weren't necessarily the best poems, as Bill explained, but ones that he
found interesting for a variety of reasons.
Copies of the poems had
been distributed in a handout, and Chris Price orchestrated the process
whereby each poet read his or her poem, Bill Manhire commented on it, and so
did the other two poets up on stage. Then the audience was invited to
contribute any thoughts or ideas, and finally the poet was allowed to
reply, explain or simply thank everyone for their
feedback.
Alistair Galbraith (right), musician and
Arts Foundation laureate, started off with a beautiful reading of his
poem Gliding,
which Bill described as having a lovely "swooping" motion. Vida
Zelenka, originally from Canada and now living in Christchurch, followed
with This is another
church, a poem in five couplets that Bill said "looks
secure and tidy but throws us off balance in little ways."
Lastly, Jo Morris, an English
teacher from Hastings currently studying for a Master in Creative Writing
at VUW, read Accompanying
person (Anaesthetic Conference, Wellington Town Hall.) This poem
was one that people reacted to strongly. Bill felt it had "extraordinary
potential" but needed a rethink, and gave a number of
suggestions. Some in the audience loved it and relished the medical
terminology; others found the imagery frightening and
alienating.
The focus was on these three
poems, but the discussion ranged widely: how to find the "voice" of a
piece of work; how space can add meaning; the difference a short or a long line
makes; how shape matters. How one word or one line can hijack a poem, stop
it uncomfortably in its tracks or send it off in a surprising new direction. How
poetry can be, in Paul Valery's words, "a prolonged hesitation between
sound and sense" - and how poets learn to hesitate in that
territory.
Philippa Werry
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