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…Looking for a few good mentors.

“The best way to learn is to teach."     Frank Oppenheimer

“Artists and scientists, Frank liked to say, are the official “noticers” of society- those who help us pay attention to things we’ve either never learned to see or have learned to ignore.”     K. C. Cole 

    When I began writing poetry with an eye toward completing an epopoeia (epic poem) in the romantic, fantasy, adventure genre eight years ago I had an overabundance of story ideas, but a terrifying dearth of poetic acumen.

    To fill this void I did what I always do when presented with something I did not understand- I read. Clement Wood, Williard R. Espy and more filled my head with wonderful knowledge that confused as much as enlightened me. After a time I came to the conclusion that I needed to find a teacher.

    The internet did not occur to me immediately (I still write with a nib pen and a bottle of ink), but once opened to its possibilities I was excited to learn that poets from around the world regularly gathered in cyberspace to share and discuss their poetry. However, after many fruitful months at a number of different websites I began to grow frustrated again. Although many of poetry’s secrets were revealed to me, I grew impatient as a paltry few of the poets I interacted with were of a mind… to teach.

    Commentary abounded, but little of it was truly instructive.

    Then a dear friend, seeing my ongoing disappointment, obtained for me an invitation to NeoPoet and hope was renewed.

    I have always, unconsciously, attributed Mr. Oppenheimer’s comment quoted above to my father. A gifted teacher and pioneer in the use of phonetics in the instruction of developmentally impaired children, he impressed upon me at a young age what he considered the best avenue of learning available.

    Teaching.

    Some years ago instructing for Arthur Murray’s International I had this maxim impressed upon me in a very practical way. A young lady had come to the studio wanting to learn how to Charleston.

    I didn’t know how to Charleston.

    My supervisor and I slipped into the employee lounge to give me a sixty second crash course in the now defunct dance form. I then proceeded, with my understanding of dance in general, to teach a thirty minute lesson on a dance form I had never danced. By the end of the lesson I had not only satisfied my student, but amazingly enough… found that I could Charleston and rather liked it.

    “The best way to learn is to teach.”

    At NeoPoet an oft repeated phrase describes the nature of the poet drawn to the site- “Do not comment, critique. NeoPoet is a workshop environment.”

    The desire to grow as an artist drives the neopoet more than most.

    As the new Director of the Mentor Program, I would like to invite those with a desire to learn to consider what I believe to be the single most productive avenue to growth in any endeavor.

    To my knowledge there is no other poetry website like to NeoPoet, for only here are we offered the opportunity to learn as protégé… and as mentor.

    Contact me if you are interested. I am personally and always on the lookout for a new teacher who desires to better understand their art form by improving mine.

 

Comments

First of, congratulations on becoming the new director of such a programme. Hope you all the success.
I really love this site and all what it offers !

Second, I am not sure what are the requirements here but as you know I am always after improving my poetry and helping as much as I can in improving others' whenever I have something to suggest.
I trust your eye and your decision so if you think I can help in one way or another. I would be more than happy
to join this programme. I am sure it would be a great experiment for all, otherwise, I would be "at the coulisses"
watching and learning.
Please let me know what you think.

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

As soon as I have technical information on how we do and organize this thing, I will pass it along. For now we both must wait with baited breath.

I'm still trying to find my office.
I think it must be very small to fit into my server.

W. H. Snow

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. Percy Bysshe Shelley

Learn how, teach others.
The NeoPoet Mentor Program
http://www.neopoet.com/mentor/about

author comment

this is not saying however that I'm giving up being your protégé. (Hope I shall always be)
Thanks for considering me in sir!!

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Rula, you will see a whole new set of tools 'Admin Tools' on the black menu and on people's profiles an option to accept them as a protegee

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

Thanks for the trust. This is a privilege which I really cherish. I know how difficult it is to satisfy everyone here, but I shall do my best at least not to disappoint those who trusted me. Hope I can meet Neo's expectations
and pay back some of the dues.

However jess, I still have the same menu options here. Nothing really changed. Do you think it is it only a matter of time for these changes to take place?
Thanks again..

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

and if not, I will look into it,
but if you look at someone else's profile you should see the "accept as protege" option. Tell me if you don't.

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

I can see this option...

❤❤❤❤❤❤

Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words
........Robert Frost☺

Please follow me on Instagram
https://instagram.com/poetry.jo?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

are the most EPICURIAL person on earth
a RARE BRAND
be it muse or prose
you are just an epicurial ROSE
and thank oppy for me
keep at it ...
some day some one may want to pass time like me..

u he;lped me to coin
EPICURIAL
YOU KNOW.
friend SNOW..

loved

Your copywrite certificate is in the mail. I will try to negotiate royalties.

W. H. Snow

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. Percy Bysshe Shelley

Learn how, teach others.
The NeoPoet Mentor Program
http://www.neopoet.com/mentor/about

author comment

my address you know
i know you know
that i know
you know

loved

Jess has sent me links to all of the old mentor protocols and I will be filtering through them over the next several days. At this point I don't know what I will keep and what I won't (I've some reading to do), but with all the links he's put me in touch with... I should know everything you wanted to know about the Mentor Programme, but was afraid to ask because wesley might answer you... and everyone knows wesley talks too much.
Jess has graciously given me carte blanch concerning the program, but other than writing a few letters "hat in hand" I'm not going to shake anything up until I know what's "down".

Save one thing... you might want to Google "proactive". A mighty wind is about to blow.
This opportunity for me has arrived at a moment in my life designed for it.
Can you spell "propitious"?

No really... can you? My spellchecker isn't working and I don't want to make mistakes of spelling my first days on the job.

W. H. Snow

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. Percy Bysshe Shelley

Learn how, teach others.
The NeoPoet Mentor Program
http://www.neopoet.com/mentor/about

author comment

The use of these long words have many scuttling to their dictionaries, but Sparrow took those two words, Proactive and Propitious and said they were both used in the blue light district he once knew.
The first was, what was happening at night and the latter was to do with how they felt about the people who couldn't afford to go there
Then you creased him up with Men Tors.. La La
He left this morning to go to Cornwall muttering something about a lump of rock there that they call Hey Tor to see if there was a connection.
.
On the serious side though to be a Mentor is not an easy task, you really have to have a very good knowledge of the poetic forms, and they are usually very busy people.
I can only say that if you need assistance in any way then I am here, but remember that I am not learned in the poetic forms I love to sort out the themes of things.
I will have a think as to what I can do, and get back to you,
Yours Ian.T

.
There are a million reasons to believe in yourself,
So find more reasons to believe in others..

I will disagree with you.
Understanding poetic forms, English grammar, how to spell... these are all very useful, but not necessarily requisite.
Let me try to lay out what I feel are a few of the requirements for a good mentor (I say "good" because I don't want to presume that you or any other would think I was looking for "a few bad mentors").

My previous comment could introduce my first requisite trait. A good mentor must be clearly understood. A protege may not want to work with tried and true poetic forms, they may not care if they litter their work with mispelled words, grammar perhaps is not all it's cracked up to be, but whatever our theoretical protege wants help with... they want help and that means whoever tries to offer that aid- must be clearly understood.

Next (in no particular order), a mentor MUST desire to be a mentor. If a poet is offering their assistance out of some misguided sense of responsibility, that they are "paying their dues" to NeoPoet or sharing their wealth of knowledge (I'm serious... there is a WEALTH of knowledge hiding in NeoPoet's population) because "it is the right thing to do" is not the mentor I'm looking for. A poet should become a mentor because they want to. They should mentor because they like it. Responsibility to one's craft, paying one's dues and so forth are superb reasons to mentor, but without joy in the task neither party benefits.

I have a bounty of these "requisites", but I'll lay one more out and then I have to feed the animals.

A good mentor must be willing to help the protege achieve THEIR goals. If I had my way everyone here would be working on an epic poem in iambic tetrameter (or pentameter... I'm flexible) with rhyming couplets, but where would be the art in that? A good mentor is one who can use their experience and understanding of poetry in general, in the way they see it and adapt to help the student realize their potential. In truth, one can only teach what one knows, but I am continually amazed at how much I learn about my poetry when I try to help someone explore theirs... in my way. Suddenly both student and teacher are writing a little like each other and an entirely new beast is created that neither expected.
Your up front attitude about what you know and do not know does not minimize what you have to offer... it augments it.
Send me a PM and let's talk.

W. H. Snow

A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds. Percy Bysshe Shelley

Learn how, teach others.
The NeoPoet Mentor Program
http://www.neopoet.com/mentor/about

author comment
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