Pat Mottola, an award-winning poet and Pushcart Prize nominee, visited Cheshire Academy on Oct. 27 to share some of her poetry and help students develop their own works in Allison Bass-Riccio’s Creative Writing course. 

Mottola, president of the Connecticut Poetry Society, talked about establishing a poem’s voice, how humor in poetry can complement serious subject, and how lines and phrases can help readers imagine the described scenes. 

She also shared with the class examples of acrostic poetry, a type of verse where certain letters in each line—typically the first—spell out a word or phrase.  

Mottola later shared lunch with the class, where they continued their discussion on poetry, participated in a writing prompt, and held a question-and-answer session. 

See more from Mottola’s visit on Flickr here.