Innovation Course Forms of Poetry

Catalog description

The word “poetry” comes from a Greek root, poiesis , which is related to a form of the verb “to make.” Let’s therefore remind ourselves, here and now, that a poem is a made thing , and that to talk about poetics is to talk about acts and/or habits of making . We may find it useful to begin with this reminder, because so much of the contemporary imagination regarding “writing” centers on imagination, individuality, and solitude. What happens when we break open these ideas, and focus on the act of writing as an act of making ? What happens when we give ourselves over to process , and let the poem and the process underhand lead the way? While there may be any number of ways to do so, this course is organized around three (hopefully) generative approaches to the writing of poems: Dictation, Document, and Ritual. What does it mean to receive rather than to write one’s poems? How does conceiving of the poem, the page, and even the word as an object already in the world change what it means to make a poem? And what about repeated and/or structured habits of presence or presentation-which we might call ritual ? We will explore a small set of writers who are exemplary in these regards, and we will read and discuss their works, engage with these modes of making, and share and discuss our works with each other. Our course will be divided into three units on the previous topics, and each unit will include one sustained workshop session. You will keep a notebook, write a series of exercises, and respond in a sustained manner to our primary readings, and you will share your work in a structured manner in smaller groups. You will also be workshopped by the full class once during the semester. At the end of the semester, you will have a portfolio of these pieces, along with other short-form prose responses. Our goal, over the course of the semester, is not to write a perfect…