Lines are the building blocks of poems. 

How can these fleeting, patterned, and often skimmable units of time contain worlds upon worlds in a matter of three, maybe four feet? Four, five words? In this workshop we’ll work with a method of line generation and line revision that thematizes  Keatsian negative capability, and train our minds to sit with uncertainty and ambiguity, without an “irritable reaching after fact and reason.” If each line cannot “undo” the line it succeeds, then we’ll experiment with “eating” that line, absorbing it into its body in some way. We’ll explore different methods of undoing — imagistically, rhythmically, syntactically, tonally, visually, etc — and different ways to enact compressive force when lines “eat”other lines. We’ll read poets like Jorie Graham, George Oppen, Carl Phillips, Jay Wright, and Frank Bidart in this workshop that combines craft, erotics, and ambition. 

Max: 30 ppl
Price £25
Duration 3 hours

Oluwaseun (Seun) Olayiwola is a poet, critic, choreographer and performer based in London. He has been published by The Guardian, The Poetry Review, the Telegraph, the Times Literary Supplement and elsewhere. His debut collection, Strange Beach, was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions (UK) in 2025 and is forthcoming with Soft Skull Press (US).

Zoom Recording

Please note that this Zoom session will be recorded. A playback link will be sent afterwards to all participants in that session. Password-protected playback links are also available for purchase for limited duration viewing.