not exactly

Never offer an exact wording for a revision during a workshop. It’s your voice and not the poet’s and it will taken as an overstepping.

offer to redirect

In the poetry workshop model the poet whose poem has been critiqued should be allowed a few minutes toward the end of the session to ‘redirect’ the commentary should s/he feel that the group missed some important aspect of the poem.

straight up

Fearless in his critique of famous poets because some had asked him for his opinion, and he gave it straight.

piñata poem

Sitting in the workshop hearing the others critique his poem he began to visualize them as blind-folded children flailing at the air, trying to strike the piñata in hopes it would spill some candy and trinkets at their feet.

duly noted

It’s not important what others in the workshop say about your poem, it’s only important what you hear enough to take note of.

wait as they whet

One of those pauses during a writing workshop when in the background you could hear steel being sharpened on a grinding wheel.