In this free replay of “The Art of Poetry” webcast, James Morehead (Poet Laureate – Dublin, CA), shares his approach to writing and editing poetry, using examples from his book “canvas: poems“.
Topics covered in the 40-minute webcast include:
- How start a poem (focusing on raw words / images / sounds, not the poetic form)
- The critical role of revising and editing a poem (including an example that shows how dramatically a poem can evolve from its raw, initial form)
- Techniques for reciting poetry (the distinction between how a poem is read vs. how a poem is heard), being intentional, marking up a poem to be recited, and managing stage fright
- The importance of your book’s cover (you can judge a book by its cover), and a behind-the-scenes look at how Kari Byron created the cover art for “canvas: poems” using black powder
- How the poem “tethered” was turned into an animated short film
- How poetry can inspire music (transforming “petals in haiku” into music)
- What a poem sounds like vs. what a poem looks like (reciting concrete poetry)
- Inspiration from art – writing ekphrastic poetry
- Effective titles for poems: poem titles as headlines
- Strategies to break through writer’s block
Additional resources for first-time authors are available in our series of articles on book publishing:
- Publishing your first book: getting started
- Professional writers write every day
- Storyboarding the manuscript
- Hire a copyeditor!
- Imprint, ISBNs, LCCN, and barcodes
- Getting a professional profile photo
- Copyrights and art usage license agreements
- Choosing a cover and layout designer
- Printing and distribution
- Publishing a book is a product management challenge
- Securing Blurbs, Advance Readers and PR
Do you have poetry looking for a home? Submit your poetry to be considered for a future episode of the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast (and publishing on our website).
Loved it. Loved it because it made me reflect on the creative process and the relationships between poetry and visual art and dance and life. Has given me questions to think about eg What is a poetic word, is there such a thing?