April Poetry and Writing News
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April 4, 2024
April is National Poetry Month. If you have been thinking about crafting your thoughts into a poem, now is the time. Last Saturday, Robert Michael Pyle led a workshop titled, “Writing from Nature” at a Writers Guild event held in Astoria’s old Alderbrook neighborhood. The daylong workshop was a rare opportunity to learn about writing with precision based on careful observation from one of the northwest’s most revered poets and authors. Two Wahkiakum County poets attended, Ruby Hansen Murray and me, along with nine other areawriters. Pro tips gleaned from Robert Michael Pyle:When you read a poem aloud, make sure the final line is emphasized and clearly heard. He encouraged each of us to “become a better naturalist every day, learn what you can, not to squander any detail”. Our lunchtime assignment was to “write something out of the magic of this place.” I loved hearing participants share their writing after the break, as well as getting helpful feedback on my own piece (where I was reminded “adverbs must die”. and subsequently made an edit on the spot).
Said Puget Island writer Ruby Hansen Murray, “To have a workshop with someone of Bob Pyle’s experience and talent, who also knows our history and geography so intimately was a gift. The Writer’s Guild gave us both an amazing setting and a small group, so Bob had time to address each poet’s work. It was a perfect day.”
We hope to hear poems from the workshop at the Writers Open Mic at River Mile 38 on Thursday, April 11 at 5:30 p.m. All are welcome to turn out for this quarterly Cathlamet event, as well as take advantage of the great writing workshops offered by The Writers Guild of Astoria (www.thewritersguild.org). Upcoming classes include Romance Writing with Kama O’Connor, April 6, and Writing Poetry with Soul, with Cliff Taylor, May 11.
Also of note, Robert Michael Pyle’s fifth full-length poetry collection, “The Last Man in
Willapa,” will come out later this month, published by Texas Tech University Press.
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