This workshop is only open to previous participants of Inprint workshops at Houston Methodist.

This poetry course emphasizes creativity through practice. In the belief that a seed-phrase—a curious word, an intense phrase, a sonorous line—summons the rest of the poem, we will explore multiple ways to construct new work: borrowing lines or structures from poems we read; beginning with a place, real or imagined; riffing off artwork through ekphrasis; and transforming passionate detail, whether drawn from your vocation, your family, or your city. For instance, we might emulate Emily Dickinson and begin on scraps of paper, or complete Sappho’s song fragments from 2700 years ago, or follow the Romantic poets in writing about nature, or create persona poems like Ocean Vuong, or re-work the “pecha kucha” of Terrance Hayes, or echo the sensory, rhythmic language of Peruvian poet Yván Yauri.

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