From Anecdote to Revelation: Poetry as/of Self Discovery with Subhaga Crystal Bacon

For many of us, our own life stories, sometimes reduced to anecdotes by memory and the passage of time, are ways we know ourselves. They’re touchstones of a particular time, place, and/or experience. And yet our memories can become static, like snapshots. When we shape these life experiences into poems, we’re engaged in the act of discovery. Why is this story important? What did we learn from it? What might others learn? How did it surprise us in showing up? The elements of poetry—sound, image, form, metaphoric language—provide opportunities to find surprising new truths buried by time. Whether lyric or narrative or a deft blending of the two, writing poems from our own lives can be an act of self-discovery that leads us to a new way of knowing ourselves.

In this generative workshop, suitable for writers at all levels, I’ll provide examples of poems that achieve this transformation from anecdote…