Alina Stefanescu will introduce two different ways of revising or breathing life into faltering poems, including Diane Lockwood's Revision-Expansion method and making architectural changes. There will be two handouts available with notes.

Make sure to bring various drafts and/or your poetry notebook. These methods can be applied to final drafts as well as fledglings or feathers. 

Bring pen, paper, pencils, several poems you hope to revise, and yourself. Free and open to the public courtesy of Birmingham Public Libary. Go to the second floor into the meeting room behind the Children's Librarian desk. 

And for inspiration, here's an exemplary, absolutely finished poem by Erica Dawson...

In Black and White 

        by Erica Dawson

Who else is really trying to fuck
With Hollywood endings, the clipped
Finish sealed with a kiss and dipped
In dark chocolate ganache? I’ve stuck

My hand into the bonbon box
Too many times. The Juliet
Costume won’t fit my body, yet
Dear Romeo’s a pair of socks:

One size fits most; and, we all die
So many times before our deaths.
I huff on all my last orgasmic breaths.
So, death, take off your shoes, stretch, sigh,

And take me from behind and check
The paw prints on my back. They’ll climb
Away from you. There is no time
To mess around. Quick, clip my neck

With your grim reaper teeth—and, keep
Your hood on, hon—until we throw
Our costumes on the floor for show,
Expose ourselves as one big heap

Of bone and flesh and bone. With luck,
You’ll clip me hard and I’ll shout, Dei
Ave Maria… and people will say
If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck,

That girl’s going to Hell. Please, can
I hold your scythe? And if I don’t
Go to Hell, can you say it’s that you won’t
Take me. A spade’s a spade. A plan

Can change. I love your pivot, covet
Your line, pin, point, arbor and shaft;
And I can dig it. Feel that draft?
Come close. Now tell me how you love it.