This workshop is full.

This poetry course emphasizes beginnings. In the belief that a new beginning—a curious word, an odd phrase, a sonorous line—summons the rest of the poem, we will explore multiple ways to begin: stealing lines from poems we like, or trying out their structures; beginning with a place, real or imagined; going for a walk; bouncing off an artwork from the Menil nearby; translating from another language you know—or don’t know. For instance, we might emulate Emily Dickinson and begin writing on scraps of paper—chocolate wrappers, envelopes, HEB receipts—or follow Richard Hugo in writing about an invented town that triggers your imagination, or re-work the “pecha kucha” form of Terrance Hayes, or echo the sensory, rhythmic language of Peruvian poet Yvan Yauri.

To help us extend (and end) the poems we begin, over the ten-week course we will also discuss your work in a structured group format, which will include supportive, written feedback both from the class and myself. Along the way we’ll read some great poets, which will include my suggestions but also yours: class members will take turns bringing in poems they admire, poems that in turn will inspire new beginnings for your poems.