Poetry with Philip Metres
Poems of Gratitude, Grit, and Grace
This workshop is for poets of all levels and of all questing/questioning faiths (or no faith) who wish to explore, through poetry, ways to inhabit our lives with greater gratitude, grit, and grace. Each day, we will read a model poem, have some time to write. The bulk of our time will be a workshop of each other’s poems and provide conversation and helpful critique. We hope to create, in some small way, a poetic version of the beloved community.
Each Day
Daily activities will include:
- Generative writing exercises and prompts (and ideas for getting into the flow)
- Vigorous, exploratory conversation about what makes for vibrant poetry of the spirit (with examples both ancient and modern, from diverse traditions and languages)
- Critiques of (i.e. global and specific commentary on) 3-4 poems per participant
Preparation
Sharing 3-4 poems (4 pages total) in advance of the workshop.
Supplies
Copies of the poems, notebook, pen.
Experience Level
People who are interested in sharing their creative writing, actively listening and sharing with each other, and growing as writers individually and as a community.
About the Instructor
Philip Metres is a poet, scholar, translator, essayist, and peacebuilder. He is the author of twelve books, including Fugitive/Refuge (2024), Ochre & Rust: New Selected Poems of Sergey Gandlevsky (2023), Shrapnel Maps (2020), The Sound of Listening: Poetry as Refuge and Resistance (2018), and Sand Opera (2015). His work has garnered fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, and the Watson Foundation. He has been awarded the Adrienne Rich Award, three Arab American Book Awards, the Cleveland Arts Prize, a Pushcart Prize, and the Hunt Prize. Metres has been called “one of the essential poets of our time,” whose work is “beautiful, powerful, magnetically original.” His poems have been translated into Arabic, Farsi, French, Polish, Russian, Spanish, and Tamil. He is professor of English and director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at John Carroll University, and core faculty at Vermont College of Fine Arts. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio.