"Going to the Orchard at Midnight: Eight Elderly Women Write Poems"

Linda Pennisi (English)

Over a five-week period in both the Spring of 2004 and 2005, a small group of Creative Writing Program students and I met with a number of residents of the Jewish Health and Rehabilitation Center to introduce that group of elderly residents to the art of writing poems.  Two of those students and I would like to offer a presentation based upon those weekly writing workshops.  Our presentation will include a description of the one-credit course, a discussion of the value of our interaction, a sampling of the residents' poems and a sampling of student poems that resulted from that experience.