Telling It Slant: A Generative Poetry Workshop in Writing Our Truths

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth’s superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —

—Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson’s famous lines have long been read as an invitation to poets: to tell the truth, yes—but to do so sideways, through image, form, metaphor, and music. To approach what is most tender, volatile, or complicated in our lives indirectly, in ways that reveal without overwhelming, that protect even as they illuminate. This course begins with that idea: that poetry offers us a way to speak honestly while also choosing how close to stand to what hurts, what matters, what still surprises us.

In this workshop, we’ll explore how different poetic forms and approaches allow us to tell our truths at an angle—from confessional poems to modern sonnets, narrative and lyric work, and ekphrastic writing. We’ll look closely at how poets such as Sharon Olds, Danez Smith, Chen Chen, Diane Seuss, and others use voice, structure, distance, and compression to shape lived experience into art: how they decide what to say directly, what to refract through story or image, and what to leave implied. Together, we’ll consider how form itself can become a kind of shelter—a way to hold difficult material with care, intention, and control.

Through generative prompts, shared reading, discussion, and kind, encouraging feedback, we’ll write into the complex terrain of our lives: desire, grief, memory, identity, shame, joy, survival. We’ll experiment with techniques such as anaphora, epistrophe, sonnets, and fresh approaches to imagery as tools for discovery and transformation—ways to reclaim power over painful experiences, and to shape private truths into poems that resonate beyond the self.

By the end of the course, you will leave with new work, new strategies for telling your stories, and a deeper understanding of how poetry can both reveal and protect—how to tell the truth, and tell it slant.

Who This Course is For

This workshop is for poets at any stage of their writing—beginner, intermediate or advanced—looking to deepen the scope of their writing practice and for a safe, inclusive community to explore the power of truth in their poetry. 

Learning Goals and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will:

• Gain new skills to employ in your writing practice.
• Acquire a fresh set of prompts and ideas to inspire your craft.
• Get comfortable trying new things while expressing yourself in poetry in a supportive and safe environment.
• Establish a regular writing schedule to keep generating and exploring new work.
• Expand tried and true craft methods and branch out into exploring new ways to tell your truths.
• Receive advice on which journals to submit to and send your work out into the world!

Writing Goals

In this course, you will:

• Develop a fresh practice to look deeper into the self for inspiration. 
• Write at 8-24 new poems, at least 1-3 per week.

Zoom Schedule

Each week, we will meet on Zoom on Wednesdays from 7:00-9:00 PM Eastern.

Weekly Syllabus

 Week 1: Foundations

We will be starting the class off with a free write about our goals and get to know each other. We will read Diane Seuss’s Romantic Poet. Inspired by that poem, we will be writing a poem that juxtaposes beauty with uncomfortable truths– about someone else.

Assignment: Write a poem about a piece of gossip or something petty you didn’t like about someone from your past–14-25 lines in length and reading fellow student work before the first class.

Week 2: Imagery

Today we will be focusing on how we approach telling our truths through imagery—how can we freshen up the way we ground our poems in the senses. We will be doing fun exercises with imagery and reading Jack Gilbert’s poems, Alone and Haunted Importantly.

Assignment: Write a poem about a memory that haunts you that focuses on one main sense and explores it fully–14-25 lines in length and reading fellow student work before the first class.

Week 3 Confessing

Today we will be learning about confessional poetry—how we can tell truths about ourselves and make it poetry. We will be reading Anne Sexton’s The Starry Night and Sylvia Plath’s Poppies in October. We will write a poem that reverses those—how do we want to live?

Assignment: Write a poem confessing your greatest joys as if to someone you greatly admire. Read and comment on other student work.

Week 4: The Modern Sonnet

Today we will be learning about modern sonnets—what makes a sonnet, a sonnet? And what makes it modern? We will be reading Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Sonnet IV and Jack Aguero’s Sonnet: The History of Puerto Rico.

Assignment: Write a modern sonnet about someone or something you love. Read and comment on other student work.

Week 5: Ekphrastic Poetry

Today we will be learning about ekphrastic poetry—writing in response to an image. We will be reading W.H. Auden’s Musée des Beaux Arts and William Carlos Williams Landscape with the Fall of Icarus.

Assignment: Write an ekphrastic poem based on a photograph you have and treasure. Read and comment on other student work.

 Week 6 Narrative Poetry

Today we will be learning about narrative poetry—poetry that tells a story. We will be reading Chen Chen’s In the Hospital and Sharon Old’s Rite of Passage.

Assignment: Write a narrative poem based on an experience that has always left you puzzled. Read and comment on other student work.

Week 7: Lyric Poetry

Today we will be learning about lyric poetry—poetry that expresses itself loosely, musically. We will be reading Louise Gluck’s The Wild Iris and Pablo Neruda’s Love Sonnet XVII.

Assignment: Write a lyric poem about something that you have always needed to get off your chest. Use images to weave your poem! Read and comment on other student work.

Week 8: Braided Poetry

Today we will be learning how to create a braided poem—poetry that finds its voice through using lines from other poets, otherwise known as a cento. We will be reading Wolf Cento by Simone Muench and creating our own centos. We will also use William Stafford’s daily prompt as a tool to guide us as we deepen our daily practice.

If we have time, we can talk about publishing and submitting as well, with recommendations on how to start.

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