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English 2003 Creative Writing:  Poetry (2 Sections)

To write well, you must read well, pay close attention to what affects you as you make meaning of words and pauses, to how writers shape thoughts and feelings into pictures that stir your imagination. And to write poetry well you must also be committed to the idea of working and reworking your thoughts, ideas and emotions into images that others can perceive and shape into their own understanding. In this class you will read poems by modern and contemporary writers and discuss and examine how their voices reach you. You will need to keep a journal in response to the poems you read and to some assignments I will give you. The main part of this class will be the poems you create. Some will be responses to exercises I will assign, but the majority will be from your own inspiration. You will share these poems in a workshop format with the class to receive feedback that will help you establish a greater sense of voice, audience, imagery, and form. At the end you will be graded on a portfolio of your poems and your journals. (Group 5)

An introduction to the reading and writing of poetry, with class time devoted to various principles of the genre through writing exercises and workshop discussion. (Group 5)