Courses

“Like a piece of ice on a hot stove, the poem must ride on its own melting,” wrote poet Robert Frost. Each poem captures an ephemeral moment in unique ways that can stand alone or serve as the shaped and sharpened, crystalline essence of a piece later developed into prose. Equipped with the writing tools of choice, we will engage in the joys of poetry, focusing on the use of fresh language to create poems and on crafting revised poems. We will delve into works by Adrienne Rich, Philip Levine, W.S. Merwin, Mary Oliver, Robert Hass, and others. We will explore and select from essential elements including image, lyrical quality, emotive force, and unexpected juxtaposition.

Students will be invited to create and share new work in a supportive environment. Our discussions will encourage using the particulars and depths of personal experience to enter writing. Drafts, poem fragments, and other previous work will be welcomed in exchanges about ways to create and revise. The workshop will conclude with take-home tools and a discussion about how a poem can serve as a carved-out space of its own, or as part of a larger body of work. All writers are welcome.