Palatine poety workshop explores obsession

The Northwest Cultural Council announces a Second Saturday Poetry Workshop from 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, Aug. 13, led by Helen Degen-Cohen. Saturday’s topic will be “Giving in to Obsession.”

This may mean that you’re stuck writing like another poet, or about your mother, or turnips. You may already have 10 poems on the topic. So what? Tap the well until it’s dry.

Most artists dead or alive, whether visual or literary or in another art form, have done this. Rilke did it, with Orpheus. Tennyson spent years writing about his deceased friend. These are beautiful obsessions, unlike overstuffing your fridge.

Widely published, Helen Degen Cohen (Halina Degenfisz) has received awards from the National Endowment of the Arts, British Stand Magazine, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Indiana Writers Conference, as well as fellowships to the major arts colonies. She was an Artist-in-Education throughout Illinois, teaches for Roosevelt on and off and coedits (and co-founded) RHINO.

Participants are encouraged to bring 12 copies of their own work to share with the group. Workshops take place at the Palatine Public Library, 700 N. North Court, Palatine, on the second Saturday of each month. All poets and writers are invited to attend the workshop. The cost is $15. RSVP at (847) 991-7966 or email nwcc@northwestculturalcouncil.org.

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