50 Things to Do with a Poem - A Workshop in Honor of National Poetry Month

It’s time to get poems out of drawers and notebooks and computer files and into the world. Whether you have written one poem or a thousand, beautiful words are meant to be shared. Over her many years as a practicing poet and writing teacher, Joanne Clarkson has compiled a list of 50 things to do with poems. Participants in this workshop will discuss these ideas, complete with successful examples. Additional materials include: places to publish, writing prompts, and how to stay positive in the face of rejection. The event is free and poets and poetry lovers of all levels of expertise are welcome.

Joanne M. Clarkson’s full-length poetry collection “The Fates” won Bright Hill Press’ annual contest and was published in June 2017. Her chapbook “Believing the Body” was published by Gribble Press in 2014. Her poems have appeared in over 200 magazines and journals internationally. Clarkson has Masters’ Degrees in English and Library Science. She has taught and worked as a professional librarian. After caring for her mother through a long illness, she re-careered as a RN specializing in Home Health and Hospice Care. She has received an Artist Trust GAP grant to further her writing and an NEH grant to teach poetry in rural libraries. She and her husband James moved to Port Townsend in the spring of 2018.