My Fellow Poets
Helping each other to see ourselves
We recently completed the “My Fellow Poets” project, which focused on poetic voice. I organized the project within the North Carolina Haiku Society, beginning with introducing the idea at Haiku Holiday 2024. Each month a different poet was featured, sharing a selection of their work for the other poets to read and write commentary.
At start of the project, we met as a group to discuss the idea of voice and how to give feedback. Big thanks to poet Anne Burgevin, who led the discussion. The discussion really helped shape the project and guide participants in how they selected and shared work, as well as how they reviewed each other’s work and wrote commentary in response. For example, here’s our ‘instructions to readers’:
Please write commentary reacting to the poet’s voice. You could consider techniques, topics and themes, emotion, sensory experience, the poet’s goals or questions, the poet’s growth over time. Help the poet to see themselves and achieve their goals. Point out what strikes you. Ask questions in your comments. Avoid judgment, preference, editing and rewriting. Seek to understand their intention.
The written commentary often prompted continued discussion. Speaking for myself, I’ve found ongoing joy in continuing to correspond with some of my fellow poets, sharing news, poems, and feedback. The group also met during and after the project, deepening our insights and friendships. The project ended with widespread joy and gratitude, for the fun of deeply reading each other’s work, and for receiving thoughtful perspective from each other.
At conclusion of the project, we decided as a group to share our experience on the website. Big thanks to NCHS poet Dave Russo for setting up the website. Read more here: https://nc-haiku.org/my-fellow-poets-project/!