Our 2024 biennial two-day workshop, “Poetry by the Sea,” was held once again at the King Solomon Hotel on the beachfront in Netanya, on May 20th – 21st.
Twenty-five members, and several accompanying spouses or friends, gathered to learn and write in a beautifully calm atmosphere. We experimented starting earlier than usual, enabling two workshop sessions on the first afternoon in addition to the evening entertainment. Each session consisted of a presentation followed by an exercise: 15 or 20 minutes’ writing time plus time for each participant to read what they had written.
- Our long-term member Ira Director opened with “Dates,” a workshop session on the uses and effects of focusing on a particular date in a poem.
- At 4pm, in another first, our member Susan Olsburgh, who runs the monthly AACI “Poetry Please” meetings in Netanya, brought in the entire “Poetry Please” group for a joint session, focusing on poems about (what else?) “The Voice.” Susan’s Poetry Please meetings are hybrid: in-person plus Zoom, with people zooming in from elsewhere in Israel and abroad. The Internet connection was not very reliable, so that hearing participants from abroad read proved to be problematic, but we all enjoyed having them with us!
- Our evening after-dinner entertainment was provided by Julian Alper, our President-Elect, together with his wife Miriam, also a Voices Israel member. Julian, an avid nature photographer and blogger, gave a lovely and informative talk on The Nature of Israel with astonishing photos of birds and flowers, while Miriam, an accomplished pianist and composer, provided music of her own composition, expertly attuned to the photographs.
- The next morning, after breakfast, Eli Ben-Joseph based his workshop session on Dylan Thomas’s “Fern Hill,” focusing on the use of innovative language for self-expression.
And finally, guest presenter Judy Labensohn shared her thoughts on “Poems that Stick” — how and why some poems, especially those met early in life, stay with us forever, and what is the value of this bond in our lives.
The highly appreciative comments already at the workshop itself, showed how happy our members were to have this chance of meeting together, sharing poetry and renewing friendships. Many thanks to the presenters; to Elana Dorfman our workshop coordinator for all her hard work getting the program together; to Susan Olsburgh for yet again handling all the interactions with the hotel; and to Yochanan Zaqantov our membership coordinator, for once more providing evaluation forms.
All participants were invited to send edited versions of the poems they wrote, or started, at this workshop, for inclusion in a chapbook to be sent to all participants. Once published, orders for extra copies will be accepted via this website, at a price to cover the cost of printing and mailing, via the Paypal.me link on our home page or the button below.
A few photos of the event:
Julian and Miriam Alper presenting on “The Nature of Israel”
Judy Lev and Eli Ben-Joseph presenting, and Elana Dorfman awarding violets to outgoing President Judy Koren and outgoing Secretary Pesach Rotem
Overview of the workshop room:
Voices Israel Group of Poets in English 