Workshops
Poetry of Place: Writing and Photographing in the West of Ireland
July 6-16, 2010
©Ronna Bloom 1983
Allow the land to inspire your words and your vision. Travelling to abbeys, mountains, forests, and pubs of Ireland, this workshop offers both guidance and free reign to photograph or write. Most mornings we will gather for a brief session of instruction, using writing or images, to direct and focus the attention. These sessions include short talks on ways of responding to the world using a pen or camera, specifically designed writing exercises, and discussion. Then off to sites where you will have time to explore the landscape in whichever medium you choose. This program is for writers or photographers or both. Personal expression is the main focus of this tour.
Tour leader Ronna Bloom has been running workshops in Canada, where she lives, and abroad for many years. She has published four books of poetry and teaches writing at the University of Toronto. In her workshops, Ronna uses the work of poets, writers, and artists to direct and inspire participants and to support their creative processes. Ronna, who lived in Ireland in the 80’s, returns in 2010 with this new workshop for writers and photographers.
Each participant may bring a sample of current writing for individual critique. Those who wish may offer a portfolio of photographs for informal discussion. The emphasis in the workshop is on personal vision and expression.
Your itinerary is set in the villages, rugged ancient abbeys, broad peat lowlands, and the dramatic coastline of Western Ireland. The soft pastel shades of the mountains and clouds appeal to the artist and photographer. Possible highlights include a salon with contemporary writers, artists or craftspeople, a visit to Yeats’ home at Thoor Ballylee and homemade soda bread. In this ten day journey, trace a map of where you are as you move through the country exploring the power of the image and the word.
For a detailed itinerary and cost see http://www.phototc.com/tours/tour.php?tour=124
Panic-Free Poetry for Classrooms
These workshops are designed to take the anxiety out of poetry for teachers and students. Students will write poems that reflect their own language, experience and concerns. Funding may be available from the League of Canadian Poets.For information and to book: http://www.poets.ca
Writing your Way Out of A Paper Bag
Is there a recurring frustration or a block that keeps throwing itself at you? This three-hour intensive workshop is for people who have come up against a block, either personally, professionally or as writers. It includes a talk about blocks, frustrations, and the tactics we use to avoid/deal with situations. Let some air into those stuck places through a variety of in-class writing exercises, and open the door to new directions.To request details on booking this workshop for a group setting, please contact: ronnabloom [at] gmail.com
The Job Of An Apple
The job of an apple is to be hard, to be
soft, to be crisp, to be red,
yellow and green. The job of an apple
is to be pie, to be given to the teacher,
to be rotten.
The job of an apple is to be bad
and good, to be peeled, cored, cut,
bitten and bruised. The job of an apple
is to pose for painters, roll behind
fridges, behind grocery aisles,
to be hidden, wrapped in paper, stored for months,
brought out in the dry heat of India and eaten like a treasure.
The job of an apple is to be handed over in orchards, to be wanted and forbidden.
The job of an apple is to be Golden
Delicious, Granny Smith and crab.
The job of an apple is to be imported,
banned and confiscated going through customs
from Montreal to New York.
The job of an apple is to be round. Grow.
Drop. Go black in the middle when cut.
To be thrown at politicians. To be carried around
for days, to change hands, to change hands,
to change hands. The job of an apple is
to be a different poem in the mouth of every eater.
The job of an apple is to be juice.© Ronna Bloom Fear of The Ride Carleton University Press, 1996