Dennis Nurkse

This course will focus primarily and humanistically on participants’ own work. Roughly a third of discussion time will be devoted to seminal contemporary poems, with attention to poets of color and marginalized voices. We’ll examine poetics, prosody, and issues of form, pace, voicing, and tone in contemporary poetry and in radically experimental texts. We’ll focus on the revision process—how do artists push themselves toward new worlds? How do poets achieve spontaneity without sacrificing rigor? How do texts reconcile clarity and unpredictability? How do poets develop their own exploration tools—and how do we go beyond intent? Our emphasis is on craft and individual style, not judgment. Expect to read widely, to approach texts in new ways, and to create many wild drafts and a finished portfolio of six-to-infinity poems.  There is no formal prerequisite, but I’m not conceiving of this as an introductory course. There will be a paper, as well as creative writing.

Contemporary poets face a dazzling range of stylistic options. This course is designed to give you a grounding in the practice of modern poetics and to encourage you to innovate. We’ll look at point of view, tone of voice, imagery, the poetic line, meter, and stanza form. We’ll examine the artistic thinking behind free verse, contemporary experimental idioms, the sonnet, the ghazal, and haiku. We’ll read widely—foundational masters like Elizabeth Bishop and Gwendolyn Brooks, contemporaries like Terrance Hayes and Yusuf Komunyakaa, and poets from radically different cultures. We’ll explore The Vintage Book of African American Poetry, The Penquin Anthology of 20th-Century American Poetry (Rita Dove), The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry, The Penguin Book of the Sonnet, prose poems, fables, proverbs, and song lyrics. We’ll discuss how to read poetry as practitioners—how to see and hear what’s on the page. The strong, consistent focus will be on students’ own poems. Class members will be encouraged to find their own paths; reading assignments will often be individual. The class will be part humanistic workshop, part writing community, part critical inquiry. Expect to write freely and read voraciously. This course is open to anyone with a commitment to poetry.

This course will focus intensively and humanistically on participants' own work. Roughly a third of discussion time will be devoted to classics, and to work that will never be found in the canon. We'll pay close attention to the development of the individual voice, and examine poetics, prosody, issues of form and tone in contemporary and classical poetics, and the radically experimental text. We'll focus on the revision process--how do artists push themselves towards new worlds? How do poets achieve spontaneity without sacrificing rigor? How do texts reconcile clarity and unpredictability? Expect to read widely, to approach texts in new ways, and to create many wild drafts and a finished portfolio of six to ? poems.

This course will focus intensively and humanistically on participants’ own work. Roughly a third of the discussion time will be devoted to classics and to work that will never be found in the canon. We’ll pay close attention to the development of the individual voice and examine poetics, prosody, issues of form and tone in contemporary and classical poetics, and the radically experimental text. We’ll focus on the revision process: How do artists push themselves toward new worlds? How do poets achieve spontaneity without sacrificing rigor? How do texts reconcile clarity and unpredictability? Expect to read widely, to approach texts in new ways, and to create many wild drafts and a finished portfolio of six to ... poems. 

This course will focus primarily and humanistically on participants’ own work. Roughly a third of discussion time will be devoted to seminal contemporary poems, with attention to poets of color and marginalized voices. We’ll examine poetics, prosody, issues of form, pace, voicing, and tone in contemporary poetry and in radically experimental texts. We’ll focus on the revision process: How do artists push themselves toward new worlds? How do poets achieve spontaneity without sacrificing rigor? How do texts reconcile clarity and unpredictability? How do poets develop their own exploration tools? How do we go beyond intent? Our emphasis is on craft and individual style, not judgment. Expect to read widely, to approach texts in new ways, and to create many wild drafts and a finished portfolio of six-to-infinity poems.