Hello Writers,

Here’s what our presenter for Saturday’s program at the Berea Writers Circle says you’ll learn Saturday, August 15, 2026 at the Madison County Public Library at Berea from 1:30 until 3.  We will also have an open mic session from 3 pm until 4 pm.  Hope to see you there, and yes, refreshments.

 

“Taking Your Time About Striking”: writing a pantoum

 

The pantoum is a poetic form that sparks discovery in the writer and reader.  It works especially well to give new insights to "found" material, sentences and phrases from another source.  In this workshop, we’ll review the pantoum’s structure of repeated and new lines, look at some examples, discuss adaptations, and even try our hand at writing one.  We’ll hope to experience the pantoum’s growing power, how it’s “like a hawk with a chicken, it takes its time about striking,” in the words of the Malayan proverb invoked by poet Wendy Bishop (Thirteen Ways of Looking for a Poem, 140).  Even if you don't usually write poetry, experimenting with this form can offer you some new possibilities for working with words.