Reimagined and Recomposed: An online workshop with Brian Evans-Jones

In contemporary classical music, recomposing means to take the work of a composer from the past and use it as the basis for a new piece of music. Sometimes the original changes only a little, and sometimes it seems to vanish almost entirely! (An example is The New Four Seasons – Vivaldi Recomposed by Max Richter.)

This workshop will recompose this idea of recomposition by applying it to poetry. You’ll take poems that you love, and recompose them and their words into original poems of your own. This is a way to pay homage to a poem and poet you value—and learn more about how it works—while also finding your own space and voice within their poem. Moreover, it’s a chance to step outside your usual voice and rhythm, as the exercise pushes you to create phrasing and imagery that you normally would not.

Please come prepared with:

• Two poems by others that are important to you;
• One poem by yourself that you’re not happy with. 

Each poem should be at least about sonnet length (i.e., 14 lines) but not longer than a page. 

Note: by February 4th, send your poem selections to brian@brianevansjones.com in a Word or Pages document. 

Brian Evans-Jones is a poet and teacher from Britain who now lives in Sharon, NH. He was Poet Laureate of Hampshire, England, before moving to New England in 2014 to do his MFA at the University of New Hampshire. He won the Maureen Egan award from Poets & Writers in 2017, and his poems have been published in journals and contests on both sides of the Atlantic. He has taught poetry in colleges, schools, and workshops, as well as online through his website The Poetry Place, where he publishes resources on poetry and creativity.

Advance registration is required. There will not be a “one size fits all” Zoom link. After registering here, you will receive a confirmation email with your personalized session link. Please feel free to share the registration link, but not your personal link.