Poems: Beginnings & Endings

Join us Saturday, December 12, 2026 from 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. on Zoom for this poetry workshop with Gail Thomas.

Crafting a successful and memorable poem often relies on the power of the opening and closing lines. The first lines invite the reader to keep reading, and the last lines need to “stick the landing.” In this workshop we will read examples of poems that achieve this and learn some strategies to use in your own poems. 

Register for this workshop HERE.

Gail Thomas’ books are This World, Trail of Roots, Leaving Paradise, Odd Mercy, Waving Back, No Simple Wilderness, and Finding the Bear. Her poems have been widely published in journals and anthologies. Among her awards are the Seven Kitchens Press A.V. Christie Award for Trail of Roots, the Charlotte Mew Prize from Headmistress Press for Odd Mercy, the Narrative Poetry Prize from Naugatuck River Review, the Massachusetts Center for the Book’s “Must Read” for Waving Back, and the Quartet Review’s Editor’s Choice Prize. She has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and Ucross, and several poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She teaches poetry with Pioneer Valley Writers’ Workshops, visits schools and libraries with her therapy dog Sunny, and supports immigrant and refugee families in Western Massachusetts.