Well, it was a privilege to be in a workshop (13 participants + Kooser) with someone who is pretty unpretentious & has been doggedly committed to poetry all his adult life. Some of my fellow participants proved to be wonderful poets themselves, too.

In relation to my own poem, though, it was underwhelming. This poem uses personification all the way through (rare for me) & is political in subject matter. TK doesn’t write political poems & doesn’t use extended personification, & it was quickly apparent that he just wasn’t much interested in the subject or the poem. He & a couple of participants did make a couple of comments that I can use constructively. But there wasn’t a lot of connection or help.

Such is the writing life. Not every fellow poet is a kindred spirit. Oh well.