Writing Workshop: Contrasts and Contrapuntal Poems at Ecopoets' Corner
Writing prompts, the contrapuntal form, competition opportunities and submission ideas
In this month’s workshop, we’ll be exploring the ecopoetry of contrasts, and looking at the contrapuntal form: an advanced technique to enhance your poetic practice.
The first prompt is available to everyone; the full workshop, with additional prompts and submission opportunities, is here for paid subscribers. If you like the sound of Ecopoets’ Corner, we now meet twice a month to create new work and to give and receive feedback.
Can we hold light and shade, fire and ice, in the space of the same poem? Will opposing forces pull our poems in different directions, or can they work together?
Opposites
Here’s some reading to spark inspiration. How do the poets hold contradictory concepts in tension? Do you think they manage to reconcile them, or do they choose to let one entity dominate? How do they use form to enhance the meaning of the poems?
‘Fire and Ice’ - Robert Frost
'Mercy’ - Tyehimba Jess
White Peak, Dark Peak - Alec Finlay
Writing Prompt
Try writing a list of starkly different objects, contrasting places, or opposing ideas.
Can you make any oxymorons out of them?
Now see if you can weave your notes, and maybe an oxymoron or two, into a poem. You might choose to let one object, location, force or entity prevail in your poem - or you might decide to unite several different strands. Play with the ideas and see what you can come up with!
Contrapuntal Poems
