By Corey Riner, Contributing Writer
A new club is starting up at WLU this fall semester. The Poetry Club welcomes all students to its warm and creative atmosphere.
Dylan Parsons, Poetry Club president, is especially excited about the club’s inception. He has been attempting to create a poetry club since last semester, when he first approached Dr. William Scott Hanna, assistant professor of English, about the idea.
Once he was encouraged by Hanna about starting the club, Parsons then went in search of other students who showed a similar interest in the art of poetry. He wanted to start a club that not only showcased the wonderful traits of the artform, but also wanted a club that allowed students to “work at being better writers by learning from each other and viewing different perspectives.”
As for its weekly practices, the club institutes a general prompt to write about, and then members discuss their creations the following week. Parsons, along with the other officers of the club, wanted to stress, however, that “there are no restrictions or limitations. You can write about whatever topic that you may be passionate about. The goal of this organization is to allow students to relieve stress and receive helpful feedback to further their writing skills.”
The officers even expressed an interest in furthering the scope of their club to implementing poetry with other art forms, such as illustrations and other visual aspects.
Poetry Club members are also being very active in attempting to raise awareness and to recruit new members. They are planning a number of activities, including a screening of the 2017 horror film “It,” an open mic poetry reading, a Valentine’s Day event where cards contain sonnets, and even a masquerade. While they haven’t determined what exactly to put their funding towards, the club members were adamant about using some of the money generated from events to submit poetry and other forms of literature to literary magazines.
Brooklyn Hensley, vice president, said, “Poetry Club is like that scene from ‘The Breakfast Club,’ where all walks of life come together, and you can say your piece. All that matters is your creativity. In an academic environment that includes so many forced assignments and papers, this is a safe place to express your creativity at length without fear of restrictions or deadlines.”
The Poetry Club meets on Mondays at 5 p.m. in classroom L-12, located in the Elbin Library basement. All are welcome to attend.
Photo Credit: Corey Riner
