We’ve all fallen in love with a poem. But what happens after we read a favorite new poem? How do we move from inspiration to writing our own poem?
During each class, we’ll read contemporary poems, discuss what makes a poem “work,” and then write new work inspired by these examples. Some of the poets we will study are: Tracy K. Smith, Ocean Vuong, Solmaz Sharif, Natalie Diaz, and Richard Siken.
A large portion of each class will be devoted to using the writer’s workshop model in order to give and receive feedback from our peers on our new work. Each week, we’ll focus on learning more about a specific craft element (image, narrative, voice, etc.) in poetry. For instance, after reading odes as a class, perhaps you’ll write an ode to a favorite honky-tonk or breakfast cereal!
By the workshop’s end, each student will have an expanded sense of how poems are made, how to approach a new draft, and how to make use of new revision techniques.
