S26-0115P, Basic Poetry Class

These five sessions, facilitated by Alice Mergler and Dottie Ward-Wimmer, 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.

Presenter: Alice K. Mergler and Dottie Ward-Wimmer
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 83, 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.

LLI Coordinator: Eileen Roach