poem garden
a 9-week garden party for people who want to write poems
the tl;dr
I hate scrolling for info, so here are the details right up front:
Poem Garden is a 9-week poetry course taught by me, Jaclyn Desforges.
You’ll learn a new method for crafting resonant poems, cultivate a fun and peaceful writing practice, and come away with a package of 4-6 pieces that are polished and ready for submission.
The class is starting in October 2024, it’ll be held over Zoom, and it costs $695 CAD (or three monthly payments of $231.66)
An intuitive approach to poetry
When I first started writing poetry, I felt like a detective. I wanted to know what a poem was and how I could make one. I read other people's poems and I took careful notes. I tried to solve the mystery: What is it that makes a poem a poem? Why does this poem over here make me feel things, and that poem over there doesn't make me feel things?
I wanted to write poems that made people feel things.
I tried to find the secret answer. I borrowed piles of books from the library. I learned about stanzas and line breaks and imagery and sensory details and specificity. I learned about sonnets. And I tried to take all that I had gathered — all that important, useful information — and combine it together to make poems.
And the poems came out... fine. I was happy enough with them.
But then I started noticing how stilted they were — how tight.
And I started to notice how tense I felt while writing them. How... unfun the whole thing was.
So I had to start over.
I realized that the quality of my poems had a lot to do with the energy I carried while I was writing them. And that if I wanted to write poems that made people feel things, then I, myself, would have to actually feel things.
I learned to follow the sensations of my body, the images that rose up in me, and the words I couldn't shake. I learned to work in concert with my subconscious mind — also known as my body — rather than clinging to my conscious mind's ideas about whether I was poet-ing right or not.
And I discovered that not only did accessing this place within myself make me a happier and more creatively fulfilled person, but it meant my poems were better. A lot better. Because I was writing from someplace deeper.
Best of all, it meant that sitting down to write a poem no longer felt like solving a mystery.
It felt... peaceful.
It felt fun.
About Poem Garden
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Poem Garden is a nine-week course based on Intuitive Poemmaking, a creative process I designed to help writers craft poems you can really feel. Intuitive Poemmaking is inspired by dreamwork and somatic embodiment practices, and it's the method I rely on in my own writing. Over the course of our weeks together, you'll learn how to gather images, symbols, and fragments of language in your daily life and arrange those pieces into resonant poems.
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We'll meet for nine sessions over Zoom (three weeks on, one week off). Classes will be 90 minutes long. The structure will go something like this:
I'll give a short talk about the lesson of the week.
We'll workshop 1-2 participants' poems together (kindly, supportively, guided by an ethical framework).
If there's time left over, we'll end the session by doing a short write. I'll stick around for half an hour after class in case you have further questions or just want to stay and chat.
You'll also leave each class with a new poem challenge: a link to a poem to read and a prompt inspired by that poem.
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You'll learn how to write poems that elicit feeling in both you and the reader. Poems that make your stomach flip over like you're riding in an elevator, or falling in love. You'll also feed the soil of your life as a poet by connecting with other writers, reading evocative poems, and planning a literary career that's rooted in your realest self.
You should know that while I believe deeply in the joy and inherent power of personal expression, I am also a Capricorn. And therefore, this class has a very specific, goal-oriented outcome: that you will come away from our time together with a package of 4-6 poems that are resonant, polished and ready (or nearly ready) to submit to literary magazines.
Topics we’ll cover
(This schedule may change slightly based on the unique needs and interests of each group.)
Week 1
Introduction to Intuitive Poemmaking
Week 2
Strategies for Poetic Gathering
Week 3
Strategies for Poetic Arranging
Week 4
Crafting the Emotionally Honest Poem
Week 5
Intuitive Editing Strategies (part 1)
Week 6
Intuitive Editing Strategies (part 2)
Week 7
Symbolism & Your Inner World
Week 8
Traditional Publishing for Intuitive Poets
Week 9
Cultivating Your Poetic Future
About the facilitator
I’m Jaclyn, the queer + neurodivergent author of Danger Flower (Anstruther Books, 2021), winner of the 2022 Hamilton Literary Award for Poetry and one of CBC's selections for the best Canadian poetry of 2021. I'm also the author of Why Are You So Quiet? (Annick Press, 2020), a picture book which was shortlisted for a Chocolate Lily Award and selected for the 2023 TD Summer Reading Club.
I'm a Pushcart-nominated writer and the winner of the 2018 RBC/PEN Canada New Voices Award, two 2019 Short Works Prizes, the 2020 City of Hamilton Emerging Artist Award for Creative Writing, and a 2022 City of Hamilton Arts Award. Recently, I was shortlisted for the 2024 Room Magazine Fiction Contest and chosen as a finalist for both the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize and the 2023 CRAFT Short Fiction Prize. My writing has been nominated for Best American Short Stories 2024 and Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2024, and my poetry will be going to the moon this fall as part of the Lunar Codex Project.
Currently, I’m serving as the the Membership Committee Chair on the board of the League of Canadian Poets. I recently had the honour of being the 2023/24 Mabel Pugh Taylor Writer in Residence at McMaster University and Hamilton Public Library. I hold an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia and I live in Hamilton with my partner and daughter.
My teaching philosophy
From the beginning of my writing career, I've moved between the inner world of creative discovery and the outer world of community building and connection. I first began teaching general population writing workshops out of a renovated bank vault at the back of a Toronto coffee shop in 2015. Since then, I’ve facilitated writing workshops at McMaster University, Hamilton Public Library, the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape, the gritLIT festival, the the Hamilton Fringe Festival’s Spark program, and at Indigo locations across the GTHA. I’ve also taught dozens of workshops around my own kitchen table, and over the past decade, I’ve mentored a diverse group of emerging writers one-on-one, both virtually and in person.
My teaching philosophy draws on my training in the Amherst Writers & Artists Method of workshop facilitation. It’s inspired by Liz Lerman's Critical Response Process and my own experiences working with writers from all walks of life. I believe the work of writing and writing education doesn't take place in a vacuum -- it always happens within a larger societal context of racism, ableism, ageism, sexism, classism, and cisheteropatriachy. I aim to create trauma-informed workshops and mentorships that acknowledge writers as expansive human beings with complex responsibilities, histories, and full lives. My heartfelt intention as a facilitator is first to avoid doing harm and causing creative injury. Next, to encourage creative freedom and play. And finally, to help writers develop their craft so that their work can be as effective as possible, with the writer's own intentions always guiding that process.
The details
The cost to register in Poem Garden is $695 CAD.
If you're Canadian, taxes will be added at checkout according to your provincial rate.) You can pay the total amount up front or in three monthly payments of $231.66.
This price tag includes:
Nine 90-minute class sessions via Zoom.
Weekly readings and poem challenges.
At least one in-class opportunity to workshop a poem with myself and the group.
Written feedback on 4-6 pages of poetry. No rush on this — you can submit your poems for feedback up to six months after the last day of the course.
Instant access to our course page where you'll find a reading list, a guided audio prompt, and other goodies -- this way, you can get started on your poetry journey immediately after you register. (It sucks to be all jazzed for something and then to have to wait.)
To maximize accessibility, this course will be held during two different time slots. When you register, you'll be asked to choose which time slot you prefer.
Class Dates
Tuesdays @ 5pm Eastern Time
This section is full.
Class Dates: October 1, October 8, October 15, October 29, November 5, November 12, November 26, December 3, December 10.
(Please note there will be no classes held on October 22nd or November 19th).
OR
Thursdays @ 12pm Eastern Time
This section is full.
Class Dates: October 3, October 10, October 17, October 31, November 7, November 14, November 28, December 5, December 12.
(Please note there will be no classes held on October 24th or November 21st).
FAQs
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None! The group will include participants with a wide range of experience levels. All are welcome, including folks who have never written a poem before.
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The maximum number of participants will be 12 in each group. I'm expecting somewhere between 6 and 12 participants.
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At least once. Maybe more, depending on how many people register.
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During each class, a participant (or two) will bring in a poem to workshop. First, we'll discuss the poem as a group using a framework built around these two questions:
What does this line/stanza/poem feel like in my body?
What's my understanding of what's happening in this poem?
While the first question gives the writer some insight into the emotional and somatic impact of their poem, the second question lets them know if readers are understanding the poem in the way the writer intends.
The remainder of the workshop time will be spent in conversation between the writer and I. Together, we'll troubleshoot any challenges the writer is having with their poem. Finally, the writer will have an opportunity to ask the group any additional questions they may have.
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Heavens, no. Upon registration, participants will agree to safer spaces policy and a workshop code of conduct. I reserve the right to remove anyone who is disrespectful.
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Possibly. This will depend on how many folks join each group. But if there's space available, I'm happy to be flexible.
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The lectures and writing prompts will always be recorded. The workshop component will only be recorded if that's okay with the writer whose poem is being workshopped.
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Registration in this course includes written feedback on 4-6 pages of poems. You can submit your pages to me up to six months following the end of the class -- so, anytime before June 12th, 2025. I'll get back to you within a month at the absolute latest -- probably sooner.
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If cost is a barrier, please get in touch. I have two subsidized seats available for writers in financial need.
Save your seat in the Poem Garden.
(If you’re not ready, that’s cool, too. You can email me with any questions you might have, sign up for my mailing list, or head back to my website.)
