It’s not often that a confluence of time, space, energy, and opportunity converge to create an ideal environment for writing. But just such a convergence did occur Friday afternoon, September 12, at the Pitt Writing Center with the workshop “Poetry in Everyday Stories: Celebrating the Empathy of Ed Ochester” facilitated by Pittsburgh’s rock star poet, Jan Beatty.
As facilitator, Beatty expounded the power of nuance and understatement, the efficacy of concrete detail, and the vibrancy of dialogue. Using the brilliant work of Ed Ochester as model and illustration, she also emphasized the role of witness, empathy, and relationship in creating great poetry.
We looked at Ochester’s “This Poem is for Margaret” and “Mary Mihalik” and drew from them inspiration for the series of writing prompts Beatty next led us through as we held in mind people we know or had recently engaged with in our everyday lives, noting that “there is great humainity in the people and the situations we run into every day, and that often these small meetings go unspoken.”
Encouraging empathy with each progressive step toward a completed poem draft, Beatty suggested the utilization of direct address, such as that used in “This Poem is for Margaret” and stories from our past or our community’s past, such as is used in “Mary Mihalik.”
For the first poem prompt I wrote about my encounter with an angry man at the garage who yelled at me because of where I’d parked my car and for the second prompt I wrote about a favorite aunt.
Participants were completely absorbed in their writing and clearly enjoyed the experience. Many also generously shared their responses with the group when asked. I came away feeling encouraged and looking forward to developing the drafts I’d begun.
Preciously what a workshop should do.
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The Zingara Project 