Meeting Poet Tianna Clark

          Hello bloggscribers! Fellow Bloggers? I'll figure out something later.😉 Anyways, welcome to my first real blog post. I'll try and keep this short and to the point.

          Today on campus the English Department had a writing workshop with Tianna Clark. She's the author of Equilibrium and I Can't Talk About The Trees Without The Blood. She's won many rewards such as the Pushcart Prize, the 2017 Furious Flower's Gwendolyn Brooks Centennial Poetry Prize (Best award name, EVER), to name a few. If you're curious, and want to know more, check out her website here: www.tianaclark.com 

          Also, below is one of her poems (trigger warnings for sexual assault, read at your own discretion)
www.frontierpoetry.com/2018/02/26/open-winner-tim-tiana-clark/

          So...honest confession, I didn't actually read any of her poetry before hand. (Real smooth, I know). I still really enjoyed the workshop, however. Tianna discussed how poetry is a part of political activism, stating the truth in your work, make people consider serious topics, such as in the poem "A Poem for Pulse" by Jameson Fitzpatrick covering the Orlando Shooting. I will link "A Poem for Pulse" here: www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147304/a-poem-for-pulse

          I felt a little anxious sharing because one of our writing prompts covered a serious issue for me. I have trouble reflecting and being open about stuff that I struggle with. I won't go into that here, (I know, ironic right?) but this workshop helped me feel more comfortable talking about serious topics. 
I've learned that the role of the Artist is to be political, say something, make people think. I also learned about a new poem form called Ghazal, where you have an internal rhyme scheme, then have a repeating phrase at the end, with two line stanzas. 

          Some of these terms may be confusing, if they are, please let me know, and I'll try to explain it as best as I can. I'll share in another post a poem I wrote during the workshop that's a Ghazal called "You Snowflake." I need to do a little tweaking to it before I release it. If at all, I might try and get it published first. I know that publishers are picky about having the exclusive first right to publish something, and fair enough. 

          All right, that's all from me. If you haven't heard of Tianna Clark, you should definitely look her up. She was very nice, and I really enjoyed the workshop. One of my Professors said she's going onto big things and predicted she'll become Poet Laureate. Hope you enjoyed the blog post. See you on the Tramway!