The Second Person: Poetry Workshop with Phillis Levin, April 27 at noon. In this workshop students will explore the power of direct address in poetry. The act of speaking to (rather than of or about) a person, a thing, a place, or an idea opens us to a real or an imagined Other – and to a new engagement with language. Unfamiliar elements within oneself are called forth and previously untapped possibilities of diction, tone, and style emerge in the writing process. Workshop members will receive a packet of contemporary poems that exemplify ways of deploying direct address. Through several in-class exercises, we will experiment with (and experience) the vital charge of this ancient rhetorical strategy. Feel free to bring a poem you have already composed, especially one that’s ready to be transformed. Open to all writers and readers; enrollment is limited to 12. There is a fee of $25 for the workshop, scholarships are available. Registration is required at cornwalllibrary.org.