Runopaja: Poetry on the Surface, with the Senses and Heart

Whose voice rings loudest inside you? The philosopher's? The weeping woman's? The dreamer's? The tiger's?

Runopaja offers talks on poetry and poets who have drawn inspiration from distinctly different sources. The workshop discusses poetry examples, explores various writing approaches, and experiments with writing from different perspectives. The aim is to discover your own characteristic way of writing - and perhaps expand it in new directions.

The workshop is led by Petri Turunen, a poetic activist who has published three collections of poetry, a manuscript mentor and creative writing instructor. In July 2026 he works as a resident artist at Keuruu Museum in Santu House, where he is assembling his fourth poetry collection reaching epic proportions (to be completed by autumn 2027):

the path to poet is paved with gleaming nickel feathers
when you look you see insects in the beak of a thrush
the stack of paper on your desk could not be higher
the lungs work the gaze is clear without doubt
wind walks through the branches
deadline turns 10 years old and warms up on the weekend
you tap on your remington so the tiles crack
this is the rock on which I build my forest church
(...)