Participants at the Interactive Poetry Workshop, hosted by the Lambing Flat Young Branch of the Fellowship of Australian Writers NSW Inc, thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to try their hand at writing their own verse. Barbara Granger, who conducted the workshop, acquainted the group with three different forms of poetry. First was the limerick, familiar to most people, with its distinctive format and rhyming pattern. Next came the Haiku, a form of Japanese poetry with only three lines, which challenged participants to focus on the number of syllables per line, describing a ‘moment in time’. Trying to write a Particle Poem of only four lines, with three words on each line, all ending in ‘…ing’ was the group’s last attempt at writing, which produced much laughter, as it was not as easy as it first appeared. After a short coffee break, participants each had the opportunity to assess a poem and report back to the group. A highlight was having one of the participants read her own poem, she had recently submitted to a competition. SUSAN ROLFE
