POETRY – WHY & HOW?

Why do we read and study the great poets? Why is poetry even significant to us in the twenty-first century? The answer to both of these questions is the same – because we are human beings. Great poetry can teach us much about what it means to be human, about our past and therefore about our lives today.

We may glean timeless ways of thinking from such great American poets as Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman, Edgar Allan Poe and Robert Frost. Many decades after it was written, immortal British poetry by William Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and many others can illuminate and inform our ways of living.

From reading and studying the great poetry of the past we may proceed to ask a more pertinent question. How do we go about writing our own poetry? Whether or not we hope or desire ever to see it published, writing our own poetry is a powerful means by which we are able to examine and understand our own individual existence.

Award-winning poet Skip Hughes will address such questions as these in a mini-course entitled, “Poetry – Why & How.” Participants will learn how best to recite poetry, and will be invited to take part in readings. Each participant will also be enabled and given time to write and recite a poem during the mini-course.

“Poetry – Why & How” sessions will be held at the Pizza Inn in Pittsburg, Texas. Click the "Back" button to find dates and times on the Home Page under "Classes in Poetry & Fiction Offered." Total tuition for the mini-course is $50 per person. Space is limited, so get your name in early.

An Iowa native and Air Force veteran, Skip Hughes is a published poet and winner of several international-level poetry awards. His published work includes periodical articles, book reviews, columns, editorial work, and photography, along with poetry.

Skip is an active member and Vice-President of the Northeast Texas Writers Organization (NETWO). His NETWO-sponsored poetry workshop last January was well-received, and he currently teaches at Northeast Texas Community College.

Through a high-school class reunion, Skip encountered his classmate and sweetheart after a separation of over forty years. He and Lynne Anne are now happily married residents of Mt. Pleasant, Texas.