If poetry is the art of finding wonder in the everyday, then all children are born poets. It’s no wonder then that childhood is such a prevalent theme in poetry – every toddler’s first language is rhyme, rhythm, assonance, consonance and alliteration; the child who picks up a stick and thinks ‘sword’ is actually holding a long, thin simile; the tantrum thrown in the supermarket is fuelled by the struggle to express – the constant grasping at words just out of reach.

In this course we’ll look at how different poets have written from the point of view of children, remembered childhood, or written about their own (real or hypothesised) children to give a fresh perspective on an adult world, invigorate language and make plausible the impossible. We’ll explore how we can incorporate their strategies into our own writing and will workshop poems produced by members of the class. Poets we look at will include Liz Berry, Vicki Feaver, Carol Ann Duffy, Jacob Polley, Denise Riley, Simon Armitage, Seamus Heaney, Ocean Vuong and many more.

Tutor: Mark Pajak was born in Merseyside. His work has been published in Poetry London, Magma, The North and The Rialto and been highly commended in the Cheltenham Poetry and National Poetry Competitions. He is this year’s Apprentice Poet in Residence at Ilkley Literature Festival. His poem ‘Spitting Distance’ won first prize in the 2016 Bridport Prize. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 2017.

Dates: 5 fortnightly sessions on Fridays, 7 – 9pm, starting 25 May 2018
Location: Friends' Meeting House, Manchester
Cost: £90

Book your place here