This January, rediscover the simple pleasure of writing with pen and paper while learning to capture complex moments through clear, effective language with Carol Ann Duffy, the first female and first openly LGBTQ+ Poet Laureate whose collections include Mean Time, The World’s Wife, Rapture, The Bees, and Standing Female Nude.
Recognised as the ‘most accessible poet of our time’, Carol Ann explores the collaborative relationship between poem and poet in this exclusive online course for BBC Maestro. Lessons include Memory as Imagination, Choosing a Form, Drafting and Redrafting, Children’s Poetry, and the vital Building a Collection.
“A good poem only seeks to add something to the world, something that wasn’t there before. What I want you to do is bring out your own creativity, your own words, your own unique voice, and help you to have confidence in what’s within you.”
The BBC Maestro platform features a series of extended, in-depth lessons filmed in 4K with an eclectic mix of prestigious experts, and allows participants to indulge in new areas of learning from the comfort of their own home. The commercial online education platform developed and operated by Maestro Media Ltd offers individual courses which can be purchased HERE.
“A common mistake in poetry is to think that there are poetic words. I think words need to be living and not decorative. We mustn’t think streetwise language is inferior, or it isn’t poetic. Of course, it is. This is your raw material. This is your paint. You will make your poem out of whatever language you choose to put on that page going forwards.”
Beginning with her own personal entry into the world of poetry, Carol Ann invites viewers to examine their own relationship with the craft. “Most people write poems to somehow understand their own being, or to explain their own being. It can be an interrogation of being alive.”
Throughout her BBC Maestro course, Carol Ann shares different ways of thinking, both in terms of structure and inspiration, and offers practical guidance on tackling the blank page. Rather than learning to recite poems, viewers are encouraged to harness their memory in another, infinitely more rewarding, way: to transform personal memory into a source of original work.
“Poetry isn’t journalism. The distinct thing about poetry is it uses language in a different way from prose, from news. Poetry distils. Although it uses common speech and must, it’s a different way of using language. If a phrase is hackneyed – if it’s been said again and again and again, there’s no point in saying it, in a poem, where language should be at its absolute best – heightened, trying to make us see afresh.”
Her course consists of 25 lessons and is designed for viewers to learn at their own pace. Lessons are accompanied by extensive course notes filled with expert advice for all those hoping to assemble their own collection of poetry. By the end of Writing Poetry, viewers will come away with defined subject ideas and clear methods on how to assemble these into a small collection of poems.
“All you need to bring to this course is your memory, your interests, the way you talk, stories that you grew up with, the recollection of a love affair, bereavement or celebration. All these are within you. The only actual thing you need to have in your hand is a good pen and a new notebook.”
To sign up, CLICK HERE
Lead Pic: Jonathan Rowley
