We repeat ourselves a lot. Sometimes this can be done as a form of prayer or meditation, other times we repeat ourselves to teach or to inform, sometimes ourselves and sometimes others. Writers as diverse as Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Kurt Vonnegut, and John Ashberry also practice repetition to various effects in their poetry and prose, so it goes. In this generative workshop writers of all skill levels will be introduced to the Pantoum, a poetic originating from Malayasia that dates back to the 15th century. Participants will learn how to craft one strong line at a time, before expanding their poem out into eight lines, which through their Pantoums will grow into a sixteen line poem using repetition the way a florist repeats patterns in bouquets, or a mosaic repeats with tiles.
In this workshop, participants learned from the wonderful poet Zhenya Yevtushenko, who guided them through the process of writing a unique poem.
Rural Oklahoma Museum of Poetry 