The Gentle
Ruckus

An Unworkshop Workshop & Micless Open Mic

We write together for an hour or so (sometimes we go over). Prompts, activities, constraints. Then we share what emerged. No microphones, no rigid workshop format.

Two hours, twice monthly. Bring a pen or don't.

How It Works

Writing Time

Usually First Hour

We start with a writing activity or prompt. Sometimes it's 45 minutes, sometimes 90. Last session went 1.5 hours of writing. The structure flexes.

Share What You Made

Usually Second Hour

Read what you just wrote, something you brought, or nothing at all. No microphone. Your natural voice is enough. We're close enough to hear the words catch in your throat.

Past Workshops

We've Explored

Erasure poetry. Villanelles. Sestinas. Exquisite corpse. (Soma)tics.

Feedback Optional

Ask If You Want It

This isn't a workshop with mandatory critique. If you want thoughts on a piece, ask. Otherwise, reading and being heard is enough.

What to Bring

Pen
Paper
Something you wrote
Or nothing

"The poem is not a puzzle to be solved but a door to walk through."

Mary Ruefle

"In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity."

Albert Einstein

"Write hard and clear about what hurts."

Ernest Hemingway

"We make out of the quarrel with others, rhetoric, but of the quarrel with ourselves, poetry."

W.B. Yeats

The space between words matters as much as the words themselves