Poetry at Piha: The Listening Sand

Workshop and Sand Scribing

Sunday 6 April, 11am – 3pm
With Anne Kennedy & Beach Tagger David Hilliam
Free to attend and participate
Registration to diane@goingwestfest.co.nz or text 0274721346

Bring a picnic lunch and join us in the glade at Piha for a poetry writing exploration and then make your mark in The Listening Sand.

Following the wonderful positive response to Poetry at Piha events, Going West is delighted to once again present, with thanks to the Waitākere Ranges Local Board, a chance for you to use the craft of poetry to shape and share your deep thoughts - to ‘tell the sand’ a memory, a secret, a hope.

Poetry can help us express ideas that otherwise remain unsaid. The sand will be our creative confidante. In this workshop you will be guided by the expertise of Anne Kennedy to write from the heart; to tell the sand your thoughts, memories, hopes and imaginings. Making an impression in the sand seems like a simple thing to do; it’s primal. But it’s also complex. We mark the earth by our very existence. These last few years have been difficult, and the world is in crisis environmentally and politically. Poetry is a place where you can say what you think and feel in a creative way. A poem is a way to work out complexity. 

In the workshop, we’ll explore the ways to make and shape a poem. When we’ve written our poems, we’ll carve them into the wet, receptive sand while sand-tagger, David Hilliam, illuminates and connects our writing. Of course, when the tide comes in, your poem will be washed away, but it will remain in your head, your voice, or your notebook.

Anne Kennedy is an experienced writing workshop facilitator who will guide you to find your tone, to select words, and to contemplate how a poem can crystallise elements of time, difficulties and musings. View the 2023 poetry video What I’d Ask the Sand commissioned by Going West here.

 Workshop schedule
11am Welcome and introductions, and outlining the afternoon.
11.10am Talking through the idea, including poem samples.
11.30 Writing time
12.30 Lunch, sharing our poems, and making any revisions.
1.30pm To the beach!