Poetry Workshop: The Human Song

Catalog description

Poetry is as old as human life on Earth. We sang to our babies. We sang to cast spells, to bless, to seduce, to celebrate, to mourn, to survive, to instruct, and to imagine. This course will be open to anyone who wants to read and write poetry. Beginners and experienced writers alike are welcome. (We are all beginners.) We will read contemporary poems and poems written many years ago. We will practice observing the outer and the inner worlds. We will practice the poetic arts: creating images, making metaphors, and employing rhyme and assonance. We will practice organic forms. We will work with rhythm and syllabics. We will experiment with ecopoetry, ekphrastic poetry, and persona poems. Students will meet weekly with each other on “poetry dates” and meet with the instructor biweekly for individual conferences. Students 197 Writing will revise their poems written weekly so that, by the end of the semester, they will have a deeper sense of the art and a revised collection of their work. Students will be asked for curiosity, care, and commitment. We will have a wonderful time. Contemporary American Poetry