Alison Craig’s Poetry Workshop by Mary Corbey
Alison Craig’s poetry workshop.
It was with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation that I attended my very first
poetry workshop. It was reassuring to find a healthy mix of ‘first timers’ and ‘old
hands’ amongst the participants; the good attendance no doubt a reflection of Alison’s
reputation in the field. .
As a child at school I’d felt that poetry was something that they used to torture you
with, rather than a creative activity that could be used to support, encourage and
inspire. I need not have worried; the workshop in presentation style and content could
hardly have been further removed from some of my less positive encounters with the
medium.
Alison asked us all to bring along an object. In common with several other
participants, I had chosen an object with emotional significance; in my case, my
Grand mother’s powder compact. Firstly we were asked to spend a few minutes
examining the object, and in minute, practical, detail describing it. Secondly, we were
asked to record our emotions and feelings about the object. Looking then in turn at the
separate pieces of work, we were asked to highlight any particular phrases or words
that worked for us. From this ground work, we were asked to generate a couple of
lines of poetry.
I found Alison’s practical approach to idea generation refreshing, reassuring and
most of all productive. Having gone from not knowing what I was doing at a poetry
workshop, to not knowing where or how to start, I found myself with a strategy. A
strategy where there is every indication it will bear fruit.
That is not to say that the workshop was restricted to nuts and bolts mechanics; to the
contrary Alison deftly showed us how to marry the conceptual elements with the
practical, in away that supported the piece. She demonstrated, by sharing with us a
number of works from renowned poets, how the attention of the reader could be
anchored and how this could support the introduction and exploration of more abstract
themes.
The metaphor Alison used; Blood, Stone, Gold was particularly illustrative and did
inspire me to write my first poetry in over forty years. Although, I remain a long way
from producing ‘Gold’ or even ‘ripe fruit’, Alison Craig’s workshop has gone a very
long way to support this (very) late developer on her first steps into the world of
poetry and in her pursuit of the right word, at the right time in the right place.
Mary Corbey