The Poetic Line and Winter Spell

*Now with corrected formatting unlike the email* On being taught by Jane Clarke and looking at the line in my writing.

I’ve just finished a workshop by Jane Clarke for The Poetry Business called Revisiting the Line. It was incredibly provoking. Jane gave me a vocabulary and a map for finding my way. I feel a little closer to understanding what I am trying to say and to illustrate in my own work and to reading and understanding other peoples.

When I asked Jane about using punctuation in my work she encouraged me to continue doing so (the use of colons, hyphens in particular was what we were discussing) but said I was right to ask the question of myself, saying “that is the attention the poet is required to bring” - I loved this.

I revisited Winter Spell as part of the workshop. Here is the pre-workshop version and then the first verse again as it was re-worked in the workshop. If I don’t post before I get round to re-working the whole poem I won’t post at all so forgive the moving feast. As ever, I’d love to know what you think.

Winter Spell

We see prints,
I wrap my scarf around him.
Flakes blow inside our hoods,
his eyelashes freckled

Drawing on fresh fallen sheets:
Large circles.
He steps inside,
casting spells.

This is my lucky break:
I am not hunched over in the snow,
eyes asking,
worn hand outstretched.

Give up time.
When I walk with him.
This is the gift I can give him:
To be considered.

I will allow for any whim.
Surely creating space, 
for calm, for memories and 
the ability to wonder.

The First Verse post-workshop

We See Prints.
I wrap my scarf around him.
Flakes blow
inside our hoods, his eyelashes
freckled

(I’m not bound to the new version but I think it does draw attention to the smallness of who I’m writing about and perhaps has more physicality)