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Making Poems That Last – Winter 2011
A Poetry Workshop with Leonard Gontarek
Since 2005, this workshop has drawn a dynamic group of talented,
enthusiastic and committed poets lending support
and valuable advice to each other.
The workshop will include discussions of contemporary
and international poetry, translation, the students' poetry,
and the realities of publishing poetry. Historical, persona, political, homage,
and confessional poetry will be covered with a focus on what makes
a poet's voice original and their own. Specific direction
and assignments will be given, with attention to the basic elements
and forms of poetry. Through invention students will build
more accurate and textured work.
The workshop will be presented in eight 2-hour sessions,
Saturdays, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM
January 8, 15, 22, 29
February 5, 12, 19, 26.
Location: 4221 Osage Avenue in West Philadelphia.
The cost is 160 dollars for eight sessions.
Payment in advance.
Please contact Leonard Gontarek with interest:
gontarek9 (at) earthlink (dot) net
215.808.9507
Independent workshops and manuscript editing available.
Leonard Gontarek is the author of four books of poems: St. Genevieve Watching Over Paris, Van Morrison Can’t Find His Feet, Zen For Beginners, and Déjà Vu Diner (Autumn House Press, 2006). His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Fence, Field, Pool, Volt, The Quarterly, Exquisite Corpse, Hanging Loose, Poetry Northwest, Blackbird and The Best American Poetry (Paul Muldoon, editor). His poems also appear in the anthologies Joyful Noise! American Spiritual Poetry and The Working Poet. He has been nominated five times for the Pushcart Prize, and twice received poetry fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
Leonard Gontarek interviewed by G. Emil Reutter:
Q. Have any poets influenced your work and when you are not writing what poets do you read?
A. There are books that have been influential — License To Carry a Gun, Andrei Codrescu, Lovers In The Used World, Gillian Conoley. Those two span thirty years.I could name fifty poets easily who have influenced me. I know, you want a few names: Lowell, Merwin, Ashbery, Oppen, Levertov, Snyder, Lawrence Raab, John Koethe, Charles Wright, Stephen Dobyns. What poets do I read when I’m not reading? Can a poet separate in that way? Maybe there are a couple poets I can read for pleasure solely. Yves Bonnefoy, who has had the luck of interesting translators, so you get good variations of the same poems, and Wallace Stevens, who I read the most regularly of any poet. I think I read fiction that is somewhere between poetry and fiction for delight. All of Julio Cortazar. All of Evan S. Connell, who has a book-length poem unlike any other: Points For A Compass Rose. Ava by Carol Maso falls into this category, and Reader’s Block by David Markson.
Q. There are many new poets emerging in the Philadelphia area. What advice would you give them as they begin to share their works?
A. I think it takes a good ten to twenty years to establish one’s own style. Not that we don’t write good poems along the way. I note this, in particular, to suggest not worrying about things too much. Enjoy all aspects of the process. It is likely true that the process is all we have at times. I read somewhere that in two hundred years probably only five or six poets writing at this time will be remembered. If this is the case, I would definitely advise enjoying the ride. Not to worry about things that are out of our hands.
Q. If you weren’t a poet what would you be?
A. I would be wandering a beach, with my pants rolled to my ankles, looking for myself. I’m serious. Of course, I do that as a poet, but poetry lends me more dignity and grace and occasional glimpses of wisdom. For that, I am grateful.
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