Is it true, as Carl Sandburg posits, “Poetry is a diary kept by a sea creature who lives on land and wishes he could fly?” How, as a poet, do you get yourself airborne? Whether you are simply poetry curious or have been writing poetry for awhile, join this class to take stock of the basic building blocks of poetry. We will look at example poems and tackle worksheets full of exercises to help you create your own work. The question, “What is poetry?” will guide our inquiry as we dive deep week by week into different aspects of what makes a poem a poem. We will study sonic elements (sound and song, repetition, role of rhyme), figures of speech and comparisons (simile, metaphor and more), the world of imagery, the beauty of visual poems for the eye, and close with a look at the power of revising not only your poems, but their titles.
As Wislawa Szymborska wrote, “If you want to become a decent cobbler, it’s not enough to enthuse over human feet. You have to know your leather, your tools, pick the right pattern, and so forth…It holds true for artistic creation too,” How to (and How Not To) Write Poetry; Advice for blocked writers and aspiring poets from a Nobel Prize winner’s newspaper column, translated by Clare Cavanagh, Poetry Foundation). Come with an open heart, your mighty pen, sharpened favorite Number Two pencil or favorite colored pencil, empty notebook, and a commitment to share your ideas and your poetry with a group of like-minded writers. We convene over a combination of email, private online community, and weekly Zoom call during which we write and share feedback on the spot.
Cost for the 8 week course is $450. Please use the contact form on my website to email me for details regarding how to sign up. Course begins *(amended start date) Wednesday, October 3 and runs through Wednesday, November 28, 2018.
Recently published work by Tania:
City Boys and The Marriage Counselor Channels King Solomon, Rockvale Review, 2018
Goat Milk Ice Cream, Whale Road Review, Summer 2017
Hades, in Prime Number Magazine, Issue 107, April-June 2017
Walking the Laguna, for Reginald Shepherd, TAB: The Journal of Poetry and Poetics
