Time of Fire poetry performance and workshop

A workshop that encourages older secondary students to engage with poetry and to try their hand at writing it.

Secondary students often treat poetry as something to be avoided. They see it as having no relevance to their lives, find it boring and antiquated. I’d like to think my new collection of poetry, Time of Fire will grip them and open their eyes and ears to the possibilities of poetry.

It features my experience of the 2019/20 fires both as a landholder and a volunteer firefighter. Our property near Braidwood was under threat for several weeks and 75% of our land ended up burning. Time of Fire is a very personal and highly charged response to those events.

There’s a strong narrative drive, drama and redemption in the poems. The power of community connection shines out, and the way the forest regenerates inspires hope.

This session is also a great fit for the general public or library audiences, and for this age range could go for up to 90 mins.

Topics Covered
* Performance of a short selection of poems from Time of Fire
* Answer questions about the poems and how the fires affected me as a landholder and volunteer with NSW RFS and the impact on the wider community.
* Discuss why poetry was my preferred genre for conveying the drama and the extremity of the fires.
* Encourage the attendees to write, in poetry or in other forms, about their own experiences or to respond to mine.