A workshop where participants create a zine based on a poem. Could be adapted to be on a particular theme. Suitable for small or large groups (3-60 participants). For larger groups it is advisable to have co-facilitators who can be distributed around the room to help people engage and understand.
- Supplies:
- Plan
- Resources
- Zine Making Instructions
- Poems
- Printable Poetry Collection
- My Poems
- Cat (1987) – Ted Hughes
- Feeding The Worms – Danusha Lameris
- The Tiger – Nael
- After Rain – Nadia Solenne
- This Is Just To Say – William Carlos Williams
- All You Who Sleep Tonight – Vikram Seth
- Dreams – Langston Hughes
- Underface – Shel Silverstein
- A Day Away – Brian E Pardee
- Despite The Storms – S.C. Lourie
- Your Wounds – Lauren Jarvis-Gibson
- Drowning – Amy O Connor
- The Terrifying Thing About Love – Madalina Coman
- Snowflakes – Sabina Laura
- Choose How You Spend Your Time – Blake Auden
- Just The Beginning – Caroline White
Supplies:
- A range of short poems, printed out
- Scissors
- Paper (range of colours)
- Glue stick
- Pens/pencils
- Example zines
- Misc art/craft supplies, for example:
- Stickers
- Printed out photos/pictures
- Collage papers
- Coloured pens/pencils
- Needle and embroidery thread
- Paints
- Glitter
- Paint pens
- Stamps
- (Optional) ways to bind (staple, string, hole punch, needle, awl)
Plan
- (5-10 mins) If you have a particular theme, get them thinking about the theme by asking questions or asking them to mind map, individually or in small groups about the theme.
- (5 mins) Introduce the poems. Have a range of different poems, it’s probably best to keep them on the short side. Have multiple copies of each so that multiple people can use the same one. Try to choose poems that are likely to resonate with the audience. You may choose a particular theme for the poems, such as a political cause.
- (10-15 mins) Have the participants engage with the poems in some way, for example:
- Highlighting / blacking out areas of the poems
- Draw pictures of what you think the poem is about
- If you prepared print outs of potentially relevant pictures, ask them to choose pictures they think match the poem well
- Make a word cloud of words on the theme of the poem. Prompt them to think about something specific such as the sensory qualities or the emotions the poem evokes
- (5 mins) Ask the participants if they are familiar with the concept of a zine. Invite any familiar participant to explain / talk about what they like about zines or about zines they like. If no one is familiar, explain it yourself.
- (5 mins) Show examples of zines. Hand them to participants to pass around for a closer look. It is good to have a range of zines, for example:
- Wordy zines
- Arty zines
- Silly zines
- Political zines
- (5-10 mins) Demonstrate ways of making them (you can have participants make them at the same time as you, step by step. You could also just have instructions printed out and just go around to help people if they’re stuck.
- (30-90 mins) Ask participants to choose a poem, or write their own if they are so inclined, and make a zine about it.
- (10 mins) Give people the opportunity to share and talk about their zine with the group.
Resources
Zine Making Instructions
Simple Folded Zine
Supplies: Paper, Scissors
Japanese Stab Binding
Supplies: Paper, Awl, Needle, Thread
Saddle Stitch Binding
Supplies: paper, awl, needle, thread
Poems
Printable Poetry Collection
My Poems
Cat (1987) – Ted Hughes
You need your Cat.
When you slump down
All tired and flat
With too much town
With too many lifts
Too many floors
Too many neon-lit
Corridors
Too many people
Telling you what
You just must do
And what you must not
With too much headache
Video glow
Too many answers
You will never know
Then stroke the Cat
That warms your knee
You’ll find her purr
Is a battery
For into your hands
Will flow the powers
Of the beasts who ignore
These ways of ours
And you’ll be refreshed
Through the Cat on your lap
With a Leopard’s yawn
And a Tiger’s nap.
Feeding The Worms – Danusha Lameris
Ever since I found out that earth worms have taste buds
all over the delicate pink strings of their bodies,
I pause dropping apple peels into the compost bin, imagine
the dark, writhing ecstasy, the sweetness of apples
permeating their pores. I offer beets and parsley,
avocado, and melon, the feathery tops of carrots.
I’d always thought theirs a menial life, eyeless and hidden,
almost vulgar—though now, it seems, they bear a pleasure
so sublime, so decadent, I want to contribute however I can,
forgetting, a moment, my place on the menu.
The Tiger – Nael
The tiger
He destroyed his cage
Yes
YES
The tiger is out
After Rain – Nadia Solenne
After the rainfall,
a snail draws its silver line
across the stone step.
This Is Just To Say – William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
All You Who Sleep Tonight – Vikram Seth
All you who sleep tonight
Far from the ones you love,
No hand to left or right
And emptiness above –
Know that you aren’t alone
The whole world shares your tears,
Some for two nights or one,
And some for all their years.
Dreams – Langston Hughes
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
Underface – Shel Silverstein
Underneath my outside face
There’s a face that none can see.
A little less smiley,
A little less sure,
But a whole lot more like me
A Day Away – Brian E Pardee
Some feelings are shallow, some feelings are deep.
Some make us smile, some make us weep.
Some we love, some we don’t.
Some we’ll savor, some we won’t.
Some grounding, some uplifting,
Some long-lasting, some constantly shifting.
No matter what feelings I’m feeling today,
I know tomorrow is only a day away.
Despite The Storms – S.C. Lourie
Despite the storms,
beauty arrives like
it was always going to.
Despite the darkness,
the light returns.
Despite your loss,
your heart will be
full again.
Despite the breaking,
your heart will feel
like it belongs in the
land of joy once more.
This is how it will
always be. Keep living.
Your Wounds – Lauren Jarvis-Gibson
Time doesn’t heal wounds
to make you forget.
It doesn’t heal wounds to
erase the memories.
Time leaves you with a scar
to remind you of how you fought through it.
Time leaves you with a scar
to remind you of how you bled
and how you survived.
You survived.
Drowning – Amy O Connor
They come in waves,
my feelings for you.
And not pretty whitecaps
dancing at my feet.
But when I least expect it.
When life seems to be
a quiet stream of continuity.
They come to disrupt.
So forceful they pull me under,
so that I am drowning and once again,
can’t catch my breath.
The Terrifying Thing About Love – Madalina Coman
It is a terrifying thing
to watch love
walk in your direction
when you believe
you are not ready
to receive it.
In the same manner,
it is quite terrifying
watching love
walk away from you
when you are not yet ready
to let go.
Snowflakes – Sabina Laura
I caught snowflakes
on my fingertips
but they melted
to my dismay.
I could not hold on
to something
that did not want
to stay.
Choose How You Spend Your Time – Blake Auden
You cannot
slow the setting
of the sun.
You can only choose
how to spend
your time
in the light.
Just The Beginning – Caroline White
one day
it will be so clear –
what you thought
was the end,
was really
just the beginning.
Some doors are hidden
until we are ready
to open them.
Leave a Reply