Here, There, and Everywhere: Writing Poetry through the Senses
with Alexander Shalom Joseph
November 24, 2025
Length: 6 Weeks
Open to AllText and Live Video
Zoom sessions Sundays from 3-4PM Eastern
Original price was: $445.00.$380.00Current price is: $380.00.
Original price was: $445.00.$380.00Current price is: $380.00.Enroll Now
Our lives are defined by our senses—the smell of freshly brewed coffee, the sight of a lover’s smile, the taste of a crisp sip of wine on a warm day, the feel of clean sheets, the sound of a song that transports you through time. In this six-week workshop, we’ll use poetry to explore the richness of the sensory world, and discover how these details can deepen and enliven our writing.
By tuning in to sensory experience, you’ll learn to bring immediacy and resonance to your poems—writing that doesn’t just describe but immerses readers in lived moments. We’ll talk about how sensory detail can shape mood, evoke memory, build tension, and invite connection, giving your work both texture and emotional weight.
Each session will focus on a different sense, and guide you through three themed writing prompts to generate three short pieces, with time to share your work, offer feedback, and participate in a supportive, generative community. Each week, you’ll also have the opportunity to expand one of your in-class pieces to submit for instructor feedback.
Who This Course is For
This course is for poets of any level who want to harness the power of the senses to create vivid, resonant work. While the course is geared towards poetry, prose writers can also benefit and are welcome.
Learning and Writing Goals
Learning Goals
In this course, you will learn:
- How to use sense engagement to trigger self-reflection which will inspire deep, heartfelt and resonant writing.
- How to build guided, reflective writing into poems.
- To write without genre constraints or blocks.
Writing Goals
In this course, you will:
- Generate several short pieces of new writing per session, which can be later expanded and honed.
- Generate at least one poem per class.
- Receive real time feedback in class from your peers and instructor.
- Receive written feedback from your instructor.
Zoom schedule
Our first Zoom meeting will be on Monday, November 24 from 5:30-6:30 PM Eastern. All future meeting will be on Sundays from 3-4PM Eastern time.
Weekly Syllabus
Week 1: Sight and color
We will use a series of prompts to write into memories about a sight and color in our own lives.
Assignment: Select, complete and/or revise one of the new poems started in class to submit for instructor feedback.
Week 2: Sound and Music
We will use the lens of sound and music to look into our own pasts and lives.
Assignment: Select, complete and/or revise one of the new poems started in class to submit for instructor feedback.
Week 3: Smell
We will interrogate our sense of smell, which is the closest stored to memory in our brains and which has rich associations that we often at first do not remember.
Assignment: Select, complete and/or revise one of the new poems started in class to submit for instructor feedback.
Week 4: Touch
Based on a series of prompts relating to touch, we will generate some look through our own lives for moment which can be honed into writing relating to this sense.
Assignment: Select, complete and/or revise one of the new poems started in class to submit for instructor feedback.
Week 5: Taste
This will be a montage of our best meals, our mother’s cooking, our first dates, our somber sips of whiskey. All that taste can muster in us, in our memories and lives will be let loose onto the page.
Assignment: Select, complete and/or revise one of the new poems started in class to submit for instructor feedback.
Week 6: Your own sense / I remember
Using techniques honed from artist’s like Joe Brainard and Paulus Berenson, we will lean further into memory as well as sense creation.
Assignment: Select, complete and/or revise one of the new poems started in class to submit for instructor feedback.
Original price was: $445.00.$380.00Current price is: $380.00.Enroll Now
Student Feedback for Alexander Shalom Joseph:
Alexander has created a deep and sacred container for us, and I’ve enjoyed being in his class! I’ve grown a lot as a writer and a student. I’m super grateful for all the feedback, encouragement, & gentle critique I’ve received. Caitie Green
We have had the opportunity to have Alexander Shalom Joseph teach for our writing group a couple of times, and we always look forward to having him teach. His lessons are well planned and thoughtful. Alexander connects deeply with our writers and allows them to be vulnerable and speak their truth. We grow with every lesson taught.
Christy Felton/Firehouse Art Center Writers Coordinator
I was lucky enough to be a part of Alexander’s workshops twice over! He provides an enriching and enlightening environment to students desiring to push their writing beyond the typical and into the preternatural.
Joshua C. Robinson
November 24, 2025
Length: 6 Weeks
Open to AllText and Live Video
Zoom sessions Sundays from 3-4PM Eastern
Original price was: $445.00.$380.00Current price is: $380.00.
Original price was: $445.00.$380.00Current price is: $380.00.Enroll Now
