Poetry Writing Workshop

Jane Belton

Syllabus May – June 2010

Monday 5/24

In Class: Exercise 12 due. Workshop Day II

Assignment: Work on revising your poem according to feedback. Read remainder of poems to be workshopped. Prepare materials for Portfolio II (see checklist).

Tuesday 5/25

In Class: Workshop Day III

Assignment: Revise your writing for portfolio II according to feedback. Prepare materials for Portfolio II (see checklist)

*For first five minutes of class on Wednesday: Bring in a song/poem you want to share with the class to inspire our private writing (Hannah)

Wednesday 5/26

In Class: Workshop Day IV, if necessary; work period for Portfolio II.

Thursday 5/27 – Friday Schedule

In Class: Portfolio II due. Discuss final portfolio and checklist.

Assignment: Complete Focused Freewrite # 7: Part I: Examine closely the outside poetry collection you’ve chosen for the trimester.  What do you notice about how the book of poetry is organized? Are there clearly defined sections (defined by the poet with section titles, for instance)? What are the arcs, transitions, movements, shifts within the collection as a whole?  Is there a clear journey the collection follows, a clear story it tells (a beginning, middle, and end), a clear “thread”? Part II: Now, look back at all of your own writing this trimester. What do you want to showcase in your final portfolio.  What kinds of poems and range do you want to highlight? How might you organize this work? What journey/story/thread do you want your reader to take or follow in reading your final “collection” of poems? How do you want your final portfolio to begin and end? What additional poems do you need to write now to fit into this final portfolio collection and help complete this “journey”? Then: Write at least one of those additional poems for Tuesday 6/1.

Friday 5/28 – No Class

Monday 5/31 – No Class

Tuesday 6/1

In Class: Freewrite 7 due. Guest poet visits.

Assignment: Work on organizing and revising work for Portfolio III. Work on introduction to your final portfolio (see checklist for details).

Wednesday 6/2

In Class: TBD

Assignment: Complete Portfolio III. Prepare to read a selection of your work (5-7 minutes) at our scheduled exam time.

Thursday 6/3 — No Class

Friday 6/4 – Reading Day

Monday 6/7 — Wednesday 6/9: Exams

Poetry Writing Workshop

Jane Belton

Syllabus May 2010

Monday 5/17

In Class: Workshop — Day III; begin reading and discussing poems in handout (“Natasha in a Mellow Mood” by Tim Seibles).

Assignment: Revise the piece you workshopped, incorporating feedback you received. Read and annotate assigned poems in handout: James Tate’s “The Lost Pilot”, William Carlos Williams’s “This is just to say”, and Adrienne Rich’s “Phantasia for Elvira Shatayev”. When annotating the poems, focus on the details that convey the “I” (or “we”) and “you” of the poem. What are the lines that help build a sense of character/identity, and the relationship between the speaker and the addressed? What is the perspective of the speaker? Close? Distant?  Begin work on Exercise 10: Write a letter poem or direct address poem inspired by one of the assigned poems. You don’t need to write from your perspective, but you need to have a clear idea of who the “I” and “you” are in the poem. Consider who you want to address–a stranger, a fictional character, a historical figure, someone you know. Make a list before you start writing. Make sure to ground your poem in the specifics.

*For first five minutes of class tomorrow: Bring in a song/poem you want to share with the class to inspire our private writing (JULIE)

Tuesday 5/18

In Class: Discuss assigned poems; define “voice”; discuss how voice, character, and perspective can be communicated. Continue work on Exercise 10 based on discussion today.

Assignment: 1) Revise Exercise 10, as necessary (you will turn this exercise in on Wednesday). 2) Complete Exercise 11: Find a news article of interest to you.  Write a poem from the perspective of someone in the article, or a character related to the event in some way.  Start by making a list of different voices you could write from.  If you pick a dramatic car accident, for example, there are the direct voices of the victims or those responsible for the accident, but also witnesses, the police or EMT’s who arrive on the scene, relatives of someone involved, and so on, each leading to a different poem.  When reading and annotating the assigned poems, and well as writing yours, think about how to step into the life of another person and speak with their voice.

*For first five minutes of class tomorrow: Bring in a song/poem you want to share with the class to inspire our private writing (ZOE)

Wednesday 5/19

In Class: Collect Exercise 10. Focused revision work on Exercise 11

Assignment: 1) Continue revising Exercise 11 to turn in on Friday. 2) Bring in 8 copies of the next poem you want to workshop to class on Friday.

*For first five minutes of class on Friday: Bring in a song/poem you want to share with the class to inspire our private writing (JANE)

Thursday 5/20 – No Class

Friday 5/21

In Class: Exercise 11 due. Workshop Day 1

Assignment: 1) Work on revising your poem according to feedback. 2) Read and annotate poems for workshop

3) Complete Exercise # 12: Select one of your outside reading poems to respond to in a poem of your own creation. You might write to the poem itself or to the poet, but you must write from the voice/perspective of someone different from you–an archaeologist, a small child, the poet’s neighbor, a friend, a loved one, a dying man/woman, someone desperately searching for answers, etc.  Choose a perspective that interests you most and go with it. Attach a copy of the poem you are responding to onto your draft. Below the exercise, respond to the following questions in a 1 page freewrite: After completing this “response poem,” what do you see now in the published poem that you hadn’t seen before? In other words, did you learn anything about the poem/poet (or how the poem was crafted) while writing your own poem-response? What did you want to explore in your poem-response?

Clarification of the homework for Tuesday:

Write 3 MORE haiku for tomorrow, in addition to the ones you wrote in class based on images (for a total of 5-6 haikus). This is exercise 8.

Poetry Writing Workshop

Jane Belton

Syllabus May 2010

Wednesday 5/5

In Class: Portfolio I Due. Share one poem each from your portfolio. Discuss the form and conventions of the sonnet. “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed…” by Edna St. Vincent Millay and “Sonnet 130” by William Shakespeare.

Assignment: Read and annotate the remaining sonnets in the packet (“the sonnet-ballad” by Gwendolyn Brooks and “Remember” by Christina Georgina Rossetti).  Then write your own sonnet (Exercise 7) using the form of one of the poems in the packet as a model. You will turn in the exercise on Monday. Here are some ideas for inspiration: Write a sonnet dedicated to or about 1) an inanimate object – a favorite childhood toy, a stapler, etc; 2) your favorite food; 3) your least favorite subject in school; 4) a season –baseball season, spring, March Madness, Oscar season, etc. 4) a person in your life

*For first five minutes of class on Monday 5/10: Bring in a song/poem you want to share with the class to inspire our private writing (DAMIEN)

Thursday 5/6 – No Class

Friday 5/7 – No Class

Monday 5/10

In Class: Exercise 7 due. Read and discuss haiku. Juxtapositions, what is said/not said.  Write your own haiku inspired by images/photographs/ “cut up” exercise.

Homework: Complete Exercise 8: Write at least 3 haiku inspired by the images in class.

*For first five minutes of class tomorrow: Bring in a song/poem you want to share with the class to inspire our private writing (EILEEN)

Tuesday 5/11

In Class: Share favorite haiku from exercise 8. Discuss litany poems-  the term “litany” refers to poems that use repetition of a specific line, or form of a line, in a powerful and central way.  Read “Waiting for Icarus” (Muriel Rukeyser) and “Answers” (Mark Strand). How do these poems use repetition to establish rhythm?  What do they do to become more than “just” a list?  Is there a progression and if so, what is the nature of that progression? Begin exercise 9.

Assignment: Read and annotate “Save Us From” by Roo Borson. Complete Exercise 9: Write a litany poem, using a repetitive phrase or line, inspired by an image, line, or idea (question and answer, “he said…”) that strikes you most in one of the published poems. Think about how strongly/frequently you want to use the line/refrain (ie. every line, just at the beginning of stanzas, or irregularly)

Pick one of the exercises you have completed to workshop next. Bring in 8 copies of your poem for workshop tomorrow.

* For first five minutes of class tomorrow: Bring in a song/poem you want to share with the class to inspire our private writing (GRACEN).

Wednesday 5/12

In Class: Exercise 9 due. Workshop — Day I

Assignment: Read your peers’ poems for workshop.

Thursday 5/13 – No Class

Friday 5/14

In Class: Workshop — Day II

Assignment: Work on revising your poems according to feedback from workshop.