Vowels ploughed into other: opened ground.
The mildest February for twenty years
Is mist bands over furrows, a deep no sound
Vulnerable to distant gargling tractors.
Glanmore Sonnets 1 Seamus Heaney
Under the tutelage of three brilliant poets, Kate Potts, Philip Rush and Jonathan Davidson, seed and exchange ideas, go beyond your comfort zone and find silence/sound/words that come alive as verse on the page.
At a Glance
A five-month in-person course with expert tutors
For poets with some experience
Abundant prompts, techniques, editing tips and critique
Support and accountability from tutors and the group
Tranquil surroundings near Stroud town centre
What You Will Gain
Immersion into poetry – yours and others
Commitment to your writing practice
Insights into honing your craft
Confidence in taking literary risks
Encouragement to bring your work into the world
This is a unique opportunity to take your creativity to another level.
There are three modules, each consisting of two sessions each:
Origins: Finding Your Voice (Kate Potts) Feb 3rd, Mar 2nd
Rhyme, Rhythm & Silence (Philip Rush) April 6th, April 20th
The Creativity of Editing & Sharing Your Work (Jonathan Davidson) May 18th, June 15th
Each module establishes the ground for the next. See below for a detailed outline of each module.
Venue St Luke’s Therapy Centre, 53 Cainscross Road, Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL5 4EX.
Timing Saturday afternoons 2.30pm – 5pm.
This course includes additional reading, and Zoom meet-ups, plus grand finale of readings on the evening of June 15th.
Cost £225.00 for the whole course. Please note that it is possible to pay a deposit of £100 to secure your place if you’re not in a position to pay the full amount now. Please see below for our cancellation policy. In case of financial difficulty, please contact the hosts to discuss instalment payments or a concession.
Caroline Shaw and Katie Lloyd-Nunn are co-hosts for this course. For more information please contact them directly.
Caroline Shaw carolineshaw@clara.co.uk 07837387299
Katie Lloyd-Nunn katiematey333@hotmail.com 07899054329
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO JOIN THE MAILING LIST, PLEASE EMAIL CAROLINE AND KATIE AS ABOVE. MANY THANKS!
Course in Detail
Origins: Finding Your Voice (Kate Potts) Feb 3rd, Mar 2nd
In our first module, we will consider our inspirations, as well as the development of individual style and voice.
Our first session will look at our influences – in poetry and beyond. Through a series of writing activities reworking and responding to other texts and artworks, we’ll explore poetry as answering back and as engagement with community and tradition, as well as grappling with the ‘anxiety of influence’.
Our second session will focus on the expressive potentials of the poetic voice. Through close reading and listening, we’ll explore the relationship between the physical voice of the poet and the voice of the poem. We’ll also consider, through playful talking and writing activities, what might get in the way of speaking and being heard and how we can find power and confidence in our individual voices as poets.
Rhyme, Rhythm & Silence (Philip Rush) April 6th, April 20th
Know the Rules, Break the Rules, Transcend the Rules
In a module on form, Philip Rush will lead discussion and understanding of how form can shape both the language and thoughts of a poem.
We will look at the principle of ‘SHU HA RI’ which can best be translated as: know the rules: break the rules: transcend the rules.
The first session will go through a series of exercises to understand the structure and patterns of the sonnet, to really understand how it works and to see how the structure of the sonnet informs so many poems, even when in other ways they are very different from sonnets. We’ll all have a go at writing a sonnet and talking about how it works and how different examples might work better.
In the second session, Philip will lead an investigation into what we mean by a poetic line. The line is of course the building block of verse, but do we know enough about what makes a line a line? Is the phrase ‘line break’ helpful or misleading? What is the link between the poetic line and a reading or performance of a poem? When we share poems during this module, we shall attend to how the line can be heard when the poem is read aloud and how the line itself works within the argument of the poem.
Finally, we will look at how songs use verse forms and what the contemporary poet can learn from old and contemporary song forms.
The Creativity of Editing & Sharing your work (Jonathan Davidson) May 18th, June 15th
In our last module, Jonathan Davidson will look at the process of final editing and also how poems might be ‘released’ into the world. His first session will go through a series of exercises to take apart and reassemble a poem, to really understand how it works and to hopefully push our creativity a little further. Course participants will work on one or two poems drafted in previous modules, with some private work in advance of the module and shared work during the module.
In his second session, Jonathan will look at what we might do with our poems once we think they are ready to be read or heard. During the session we will think not only about where to send poems but also how and where to perform or share them – assuming that is of interest – and various ways in which poems can be used by the poet and by others. (You are not required to go public with your work, however!)
The module will finish with a sharing of work produced during the course, in the company of all three tutors, the group and some friends and family. There will very likely be cake!
Meet the Tutors
Kate Potts
Kate Potts is a poet and academic. Kate teaches for the Poetry School and works as a freelance teacher, mentor and editor.
Kate's second collection, Feral (Bloodaxe, 2018) was a Poetry Book Society recommendation and a Telegraph poetry book of the month. Her debut pamphlet Whichever Music (tall-lighthouse, 2008) was a Poetry Book Society choice and was shortlisted for a Michael Marks Award. Her first first full-length collection was Pure Hustle (Bloodaxe, 2011). Pretenders, an Art Council-funded book project based on a series of interviews around imposter syndrome, will be published in 2025.
Philip Rush
Philip Rush is a retired English teacher and musician. His poetry has been published in books, anthologies, pamphlets and magazines. He lives in Stroud but has caught trains from the station to destinations varying from Kemble to Trieste.
Jonathan Davidson
Jonathan Davidson is a poet, writer and literature activist. He lives in the English Midlands but works internationally and teaches and performs in person and online. His poetry has been widely published and he has also written memoir and criticism. His radio dramas and adaptations have been broadcast by BBC Radios 3 and 4. Books include A Commonplace: Bricks, Apples and Other People’s Poems (The Poetry Business, 2020) and On Poetry (Smith/Doorstop, 2018).
Picture credit: Lee Allen
Deposits and Cancellation policy
Full course fee is £225.00.
In case of financial difficulty, alternative options may be available.
A deposit of £100.00 is required to secure your place.
Balance of course fee is due three weeks before the beginning of the course, by 12 January 2024.
If you have to cancel
We can offer a refund if your cancellation is made at least three weeks prior to the course start date, ie, by midnight 12 January 2024. If a cancellation is made within the three week period before your course is due to start, unfortunately we cannot offer a refund. Thank you for your understanding.
Please note: If travelling a distance, we recommend you take out your own holiday insurance in case you have to cancel through illness or unforeseen circumstances.
If we have to cancel
We reserve the right to cancel a course, but if this happens we will give you as much notice as possible. In the event of a cancelled course, the full amount paid will be refunded, but we can accept no further liability for course cancellations beyond this refund.