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Poetry Writers' Workshop

Before / After

Poetry has a unique ability to trace the emotional landscape around change rather than simply documenting the event itself.

In this session, we will explore poems shaped by transformation and the emotional space surrounding significant change. Rather than focusing directly on a major event, we will examine how poets evoke tension and meaning through implication, atmosphere, memory, and absence.

How does a room feel after an argument? What ordinary objects become emotionally charged once something irreversible has happened? By focusing on detail and contrast rather than explanation, we will explore how poems can reveal the world before and after a turning point.

Writing Challenge

Write a poem that takes place before and/or after a significant turning point, but avoid directly describing the event itself. Instead, allow the reader to sense the change through atmosphere, objects, routines, absences, or shifts in perception. You may choose to move between two time periods or remain entirely on one side of the event while implying the other.

Ask yourself:

What has changed?
What remains?
What ordinary detail now carries emotional weight?

(Length: no restrictions; form open.)
 
 

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