F26-0924P, Basic Poetry Class

These four sessions are facilitated by Alice Mergler, Dottie Ward-Wimmer, and Tim Riegner. They will take us into poetic foundations: the ABCs of what poetry is and how to begin planting your words like seeds that grow into rhythms, rhymes, stories, and wisdom. We will write and then read each other’s work, sometimes silently, sometimes aloud, before discussing it. Often hearing their work read aloud helps writers to understand and enhance their own unique style. Please bring writing materials and join us to meet your inner poet. Newcomers are most welcome.

Presenter: Alice Mergler, Dottie Ward-Wimmer and Tim Riegner
Alice Mergler has enjoyed a rewarding teaching career, 24 years of it spent teaching English, history, and drama in Prince William County. She has also enjoyed a lifetime of wonderful accomplishments in her eighty-five years, including rearing six sons with her beloved husband. She now enjoys being retired, advising the Poet Laureate Circle, marketing The Prince William County Arts Council, and teaching two LLI classes, Memoir Writing, and Poetry. Alice also enjoys keeping up with her many grandchildren, getting 10,000 steps a day, and being a Spilled Inker, a Poetry Open Mic organization for which she just published a second poetry book.

Dottie Ward-Wimmer is a mom, grandmother, retired nurse and child therapist, who writes to celebrate life and the human spirit. At 84, she still treasures the wisdom of children and silence and the beauty of ordinary things. So far, she’s had ten poems and one short story published. She won the first prize for poetry in the 2025 Virginia Writers’ Club Golden Nib contest.

Yes, Tim Riegner is a tall and handsome veteran teacher. Thirty years of teaching experience divided between Elementary, where he taught everything, and Middle School, where he taught math and environmental science to gifted students. He is also a former Writing Fellow with the National Writing Project at George Mason and teacher trainer with the National Science Foundation. He and his wife, who celebrate their 50th anniversary this year, have a son, a daughter, and one grandson. Tim’s interests include piano, ballroom dancing, arts and crafts, quilting, reading, writing poetry and his memoirs of teaching, and any form of exercise compatible with his current medical needs. Currently he is learning to write sonnets and the ins-n-outs of GLP-1.

LLI Coordinator: Eileen Roach