How to … write a poem
Last year at the Greenbelt Festival I was invited to give a talk as part of their Short Talks series.
All of the speakers in my part of the series were asked to speak on the subject of ‘How to…’ (let go/feel beautiful/kill a chicken etc).
I was asked to speak about writing poems.
The result is now live on the Greenbelt site.
You can watch the video of the talk here.
You can download the script of the talk here:Â How to Write a Poem.
How neat to hear your voice when we are used to only read your words!
I’m not a poet since I write more often in English than French, now that I moved away from my native country. I think that poetry, more than any other literary genre, requires a deep relationship with words, so it seems for me an impossible task to do in English. Your talk is a great reminder that indeed writing poetry involves lots of poetry reading, a keen sense of rhythm and, I think, the ability to use words sparsely. In a poem, more than in any other piece of writing, each word counts. And that is one of the most difficult tasks for a non-native speaker.
Thank you for sharing your passion with us, Anthony.
Dear Evelyne Thanks so much for your kind comment. I really enjoyed doing the talk, and I hope that comes across on the video. It was a long time ago now… I had kind of forgotten that I had done it and wondered if it would ever come out. It is great to receive your feedback, for which I am very grateful. Yours as ever Anthony Anthony Wilson
Love for Now, my memoir of cancer, is available here
Riddance, my new book of poems, is available here
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Thanks Anthony, sage and humane and lively-minded as always. A real pleasure, and an education, to hear your thoughts.
Hi Andy
How lovely of you to watch this and leave a comment, thank you. We were all given 10 minutes max for the talks, so I felt time was of the essence, hence the script. But I loved doing it. Paring it down, trying to cut through to what I felt matters. Thanks so much for commenting again, as ever, Ant x
Excellent advice and elegantly said. I could only watch the first couple of minutes due to streaming video meltdown, but I read the transcript and enjoyed. Well done and thank you for posting it here.
Hi Robin
Thank you so much for looking at this and feeding back. Sorry about the streaming. Others have said this also. Including me. 10 minutes to say what you really want to say is a great discipline! As ever with best wishes, Anthony