The Distinctive Voice in Poetry

Catalog description

This course will focus primarily, and humanistically, on participants’ own work. Roughly a third of discussion time will be devoted to examining seminal contemporary poems, with attention to poets of color and marginalized voices. We will examine poetics, prosody, and issues of form, pace, voicing, and tone in contemporary poetry and radically experimental texts. The course will also focus on the revision process: How do artists push themselves toward new worlds? How do poets achieve spontaneity without sacrificing rigor? How do texts reconcile clarity and unpredictability? How do poets develop their own exploration tools—and how do we go beyond intent? Emphasis will be on craft and individual style, not judgment. Students should expect to read widely, to approach texts in new ways, and to create many wild drafts and a finished portfolio of six to an infinite amount of poems. Students will produce a final paper, as well as creative writing. This course is intended for students with a deep interest in poetry. The Freedomways Workshop