“But What Do Other People See?” Poetry Workshop with Joe Mills

In his poem “Musee des Beaux Arts,” W.H. Auden asks us to consider Brueghel’s painting of the fall of Icarus and how the painter shows people nearby going on about their lives. It’s a meditation on perspective, and how there can be people near an event “who did not specially want it to happen.” In this workshop, we will try to consider other perspectives inside of our work. Who else is there? Nearby? What are they doing and thinking? How might they alter our understanding of what’s happening?