Good Grief: Writing Poems About Loss

In this six-week course, you’ll join Dead Dad Jokes and Where I Dry the Flowers author Ollie Schminkey as we explore ways to write about grief. You’ll gain skills for using poetry as a processing tool, as well as tips for how to edit poems about grief and loss that you might want to share with audiences or readers.

This series will approach writing about grief and loss from a wide variety of angles, including structure, form, and even, at times, humor. You’ll get plenty of practice writing with exercises, including specifically tailored writing prompts that we will complete each week in-class. You’ll learn from the best, studying contemporary poets like Danez Smith, Andrea Gibson, and Sam Sax. At the end of this course, you’ll have at least 6 new poems and an expanded idea of what writing about grief can look like.

Each week, we will meet for an hour and a half over Zoom and cover a new topic. This will often include a short lesson with poem examples, followed by a brief discussion and a writing exercise. There will be an optional bonus writing prompt each week if you’d like to continue exploring, and you will have an opportunity for weekly instructor feedback on one of your drafts from every week. Please note that there is no formal peer editing component to this course; folks are welcome to solicit and provide informal peer feedback if they’d like, but it is not required or guaranteed.

Ollie aims for all of their classes to be actively non-competitive, non-judgemental, pro-diversity, anti-racist, pro-LGBTQ, and fun! (Yes, even while we are writing about grief.) You can expect a collaborative environment, a flexible approach to poetry, and (hopefully) a good laugh per class.

Note: Poems in this workshop will cover a wide variety of themes, some of which contain mature content and may be activating for some participants.

Who This Course Is For

Beginners are welcomed and encouraged! Experienced folks are welcomed and encouraged! Everyone is welcomed and encouraged! Prompts and materials are designed to be flexible and meet all poets where they are at in their writing journey. Although we will all be writing about personal experiences of grief and loss, everyone experiences those things differently, and there is no loss too small or too big to bring to the space.

Learning Goals and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will: 

• Gain new poetic tools to write about grief.
• Explore different types of poetic form that can be used to write about grief.
• Learn to effectively edit poems about grief, and learn the difference between a poem that is meant to be edited for an audience/reader and a poem that is just for yourself.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will: 

• Use a variety of structures and forms commonly found in grief/loss poetry.
• Explore the role of effective metaphors in poems about loss.
• Write at least 6 poems dealing with grief and loss.

Zoom Schedule

We will meet live on Zoom for 6 weeks on Wednesdays at 7:00PM Eastern (please adjust for your local time) from January 21st- February 25th. Classes will include a short lecture (10 minutes), guided writing time, exercises, sharing, and group conversation.

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1: What Poetry is For: Speaking to and Through Loss

In this first week, we’ll explore the many uses of poetry as it relates to grief and loss, from personal processing to activism to publishing. You’ll have some time to reflect on your personal poetic goals (spoiler: there’s no wrong answer!) We’ll also tackle the question “What is grief?” and discuss a few poems which approach grief from different angles. We’re also here to write, and we’ll end the workshop by writing our own letter poems. Each week, you’ll have the opportunity for private instructor feedback on either the poem you wrote in class, or the optional bonus prompt you are welcome to complete outside of class.

Week 2: Connecting to the Heart through Metaphor

I find that one of the most difficult things about grief is that it tends to defy definition, and it often feels like an inherently lonely experience. This week, you’ll learn how to use metaphor to more effectively describe the emotional truth of grief in your poetry, and to connect more deeply with readers/audiences. We’ll end the workshop by writing a poem together, specifically tailored to put your new tools to the test.

Week 3: Resurrection with The Golden Shovel

This week, we’ll explore a type of form poem called a Golden Shovel. Invented by Terrance Hayes, this form is typically used to pay homage to another poet; however, we’ll be using the form to pay homage to someone or something we’ve lost. This workshop will include both discussion and a guided writing prompt.

Week 4: Telling Complicated Truths Through Erasure

In the fourth week, we’ll explore a form called erasure (or blackout poetry) that can be particularly potent when writing about grief and loss. We’ll study several kinds of erasure, including those with found/pre-existing source material and those that are self-erasing. Of course, you’ll get a chance to test out this form on your own as we write together in workshop, and to continue writing through the weekly optional bonus prompt.

Week 5: Grief and Humor

This week, we’ll explore what role humor can take in poems about grief and loss. We’ll look at some contemporary examples, and, of course, write!

Week 6: Editing Grief

For our final week, we’ll talk about tips and tricks for editing poems about grief and loss, as well as ways to find good spaces to present that work. We’ll take a moment to celebrate the work that you’ve accomplished, and we’ll end the class with resources on how to sustain your writing practice and remain connected to writing community.

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$445.00 Original price was: $445.00.$380.00Current price is: $380.00.Enroll Now