The Art and Practice of Poetry

In this course students will investigate the poetry and poetics of the 21st century and create their own collection of poems. We will read widely in contemporary poetry, with a focus on formal and structural possibilities and other technical aspects of poetic craft. Through the revision process, we will learn strategies for making poems that enlarge language and express our inner worlds. Each week students will share their own work with peers as we build a vocabulary for discussing poetry. We will produce an anthology of class work, and the final project will be a chapbook of finished pieces. 3 hrs. lect.