Poet Cynthia Schwartzberg Edlow encouraged writers to illuminate truth at a writing workshop and reading session for National Poetry Month Thursday night.
Edlow led the workshop at the office of Arizona Humanities on Central Avenue and Culver Street. She helped participants revise their poems by sharing her own techniques for crafting poetry through theme development.
She emphasized the importance of “seeking the truth of the piece” through revision, until the message of the poem is clear. Language is crucial to portraying the theme and should be chosen carefully, she said.
“My most fervent suggestion was to keep working on what you have presented until you know that it rings true,” she said.
Each poet was asked to provide feedback for the poems presented by the other participants as well.
Cindi Reiss, a writer from northeast Phoenix, said reading and commenting on the other poets’ work helped her because it introduced her to various styles of poetry. She added that the workshop focused on highlighting the emotion of each poem.
“There was such a diversity of work,” Edlow said. “I was thrilled by what I found to be some very good pieces and some hidden gems in poems that needed some polishing.”
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Edlow said she hopes the participants will continue to work with the poems they collaborated on during the workshop.
“We all were in a room that loved poetry so much and we shared our love by working on building their poems to be better,” Edlow said.
After the workshop, Edlow read eight of her poems aloud, including poems from two of her collections, “The Day Judge Spencer Learned the Power of Metaphor” and “Old School Superhero Loves a Good Wristwatch.”
She said she expected every poem she read to relate to what each audience member has experienced throughout their lives, adding “really folks are looking just to investigate themselves.”
“When you pick up a book to read you want to find yourself in there,” Edlow said. “You are seeking answers to your life, your problems, your happinesses, your sorrows.”
Edlow said she made the decision to read those poems aloud specifically because each one has a “powerful tapestry of dedicated material surrounding many themes.”
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Arizona Humanities hosted a series of four different writing workshop events, readings and open microphone performances for National Poetry Month across the state, said Marilyn Murphy, marketing and communications coordinator for the organization.
Murphy added that for anyone who is not able to attend the workshops, daily writing prompts are posted on the Arizona Humanities website from the poets leading the sessions.
“We want people to come together, whether you are a beginner or whether you are a professional writer, and engage in the craft of poetry and also read and write some great poetry — to leave feeling inspired,” Murphy said.
Contact the reporter at jmagtiba@asu.edu.
