Note: This will be my first meeting with my combined intermediate and advanced, undergraduate workshops. I hope that this exercise will open up our class in such a way that we get to know one another better and we begin to discuss meaningful craft elements. Like all of my writing exercises and readings beyond the […]
Tag: Poetry
Required Texts and Materials for My Spring 2018, Undergrad Intermediate and Advanced Poetry Workshops
ENG 326/426 Writing Poetry: Intermediate/Writing Poetry: Advanced University of North Carolina at Greensboro Spring 2018
Writing Exercises: “Poem of My Humiliations” and “Admit It”
ENG 326 Writing Poetry: Intermediate University of North Carolina at Greensboro Fall 2017 Note: My intermediate poetry class is wrapping up their discussion of Erika L. Sánchez’s Lessons on Expulsion. All three of these poems appear in the final section of the book, and they model two approaches of the “function” of a poem. In the […]
Writing Exercise: “Praise House”
ENG 326 Writing Poetry: Intermediate University of North Carolina at Greensboro Fall 2017 Note: My intermediate poetry class is wrapping up workshop on their third poems and they are getting ready to turn in their fourth workshop poems this Saturday. This exercise is meant to allow them time and space to try something new (some […]
Writing Exercise: “99 Problems”
ENG 326 Writing Poetry: Intermediate University of North Carolina at Greensboro Fall 2017 Note: My intermediate poetry students completed this exercise at the beginning of class on the third day we discussed There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker. Six students shared their work, and some of them framed their poem as […]
Writing Exercise: “I Mean…”
ENG 326 Writing Poetry: Intermediate University of North Carolina at Greensboro Fall 2017 Note: My intermediate poetry students completed this exercise at the beginning of class on the second day we discussed There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker. Four students shared their work, and all of them wrote their best […]
Writing Exercise: “Ain’t There One Damn Song That Can Make Me Break Down and Cry?”
ENG 326 Writing Poetry: Intermediate University of North Carolina at Greensboro Fall 2017 8/17 Writing Exercise: “Ain’t There One Damn Song That Can Make Me Break Down and Cry?” Re-examine the lyrics of the favorite song you brought into class, and respond to the following questions in your writing journal: What genre is the song? […]
Writing Exercise: “In Defense of ‘Moist'”
ENG 326 Writing Poetry: Intermediate University of North Carolina at Greensboro Fall 2017 8/15 Writing Exercise: “In Defense of ‘Moist’” Read the poem “In Defense of ‘Moist’” by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib and discuss. Recall your favorite or least favorite word from the Introductions handout. If you selected your favorite word, title your poem “Against ‘[the word]’”; […]
Failed Ideas Rise Again!
I’m compiling a document called “Ignoratio Elenchi” (“missing the point”) with fragments of interesting things that framed failed poems. My hope is that this daisy-chain of failed, poetic dramatic situations will come together as something new, maybe a lyric essay on and demonstrating failure. This project must be something like a grappa, that liquor made […]
Text & Context: A Poetry Workshop at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Last night I taught Text & Context, a poetry workshop sponsored by the Philadelphia Poetry Collaboration, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art‘s Final Fridays: Rebel, Rebel night. I prepared a handout with four poetry exercises inspired by pieces in the modern art wing of the museum for registered and drop-in participants. We had a total […]
