Lyrical Life Themes

What themes continue to show up in your writing?  What are you here to say? Or perhaps “work through?”  Read Leonard Cohen’s Book of Mercy and you will see how Cohen, through writing poetic prose, was working with ideas that he distilled into his iconic song, “Hallelujah.” Read some of Paul McCartney’s poetry and you will experience the melancholy and playful abandon found in “Eleanor Rigby,” and “Yellow Submarine.” Bobby Taylor leads an investigation into works by Paul McCartney, Jim Morrison, Patti Smith, Jimmy Buffett, Alicia Keyes, Tom Waits and other popular hit songwriters who have published prose and/or poetry in addition to their hits. These brief studies are intended to stimulate introspection and to provoke new works to be shared in the workshop environment. Previous workshop attendees found this approach to be transformative. The workshop is 95 dollars for 7 weeks to begin meeting on August 29^th at 1 pm. Each of the meetings will be 90 minutes long.

The Works Between The Works

You have written a song, poem, or story that you feel is special. Perhaps it articulates a moment of great fulfillment or great loss. What about the song (poem or story) about what life was like five years before that? Or ten years after? What about the works between the works? In 1965 Joseph Campbell saw publication of his book The Hero With A Thousand Faces in which he identified twelve steps of the hero’s journey. His work was so profound that it became the blueprint for organizing stories like “Star Wars,” “Titanic,” and countless other blockbuster hits. Using Campbell’s hero’s journey Bobby Taylor leads a seven-week workshop in which participants will be asked to write a series of works that function to tell a larger story. The workshop is 95 dollars for 7 weeks to begin meeting on August 29^th at 2:30 pm. Each of the meetings will be 90 minutes long.