Both Fish and Fowl: The Prose Poem

In this generative ten-week workshop, we’ll discuss various prose poems, then write our own, in a warm and supportive environment conducive to creativity and artistic experimentation. We’ll refine and improve our work until each of us finishes the program with a minimum of two poems, ready to submit to journals for publication. Along the way, we’ll explore the work of modern masters including Celia Woloch, Barbara Henning, Karen Volkman, and Charles Simic – as well as the grandpère of all prose poets, Charles Baudelaire – and will use their work as inspiration to create and revise our own poetry.

A successful prose poem is not at all unlike a good magic trick – the reader should be left slightly stunned, emotionally spent, and curious enough to go back and read the poem again and again. So what is a prose poem, exactly? Charles Simic defined it as “the monster child of two incompatible impulses,” one that wants to tell a story, and the other that wants to “freeze” an image so that we can look it over and think about it at length. Edward Kaplan, speaking of Baudelaire, said prose poems are “fables of modern life” in poetic form. I like to say it’s a form that looks like prose, but hits like poetry.

In this workshop, we’ll define the prose poem as a short piece that has many of the characteristics of poetry – compactness, precision of diction, lyrical language, imagery, intensity of emotion, and perhaps even rhyme, meter, and repetition – but without the line breaks, or lineation, that make other poetic forms familiar.

Each week, we will meet on zoom to examine and discuss prose poems by various working poets and by fellow students. Participants will learn to identify poetic techniques hidden within the prose form, and will offer one another feedback using the “sandwich” model of “praise, criticism, praise.” But most of our time will be spent writing prose poems of our own – exulting in the rule that in the prose poem, there is no rule but excellence!

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals:

By the end of this ten-week course, students will:

• Be familiar with a variety of prose poems by authors including Cecilia Woloch, Charles Simic, Karen Volkman, and course instructor Anna Scotti.
• Have a strong sense of what the prose poem is . . . and isn’t.
• Have new tools and techniques for writing, critiquing, and understanding feedback.

Writing Goals:

By the end of this ten-week course, students will:

• Have one poem selected to submit to Ms. Scotti for a half-page commentary.
• Have two poems polished and ready to submit to journals for publication, or approaching readiness pending another edit or two!

Zoom and Wet.Ink Schedule

Class will meet for two hours once a week on Thursdays, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Eastern time, starting June 29. Each session will include a brief craft discussion, followed by workshopping of student work and a synchronous guided writing exercise.

Students will be asked to submit one poem per week (either an original poem, or a revision of a previously submitted poem), using the Wet.Ink platform. Work should be submitted by 6 p.m. Eastern time on Sundays preceding our class meetings.

Students should plan to read and make comments on a minimum of two other students’ work each week, using Wet.Ink. Please read and make comments prior to our zoom meeting on Thursdays. The instructor will also make comments on poems. Every student will be “live-workshopped” at least once during the course.

Weekly Syllabus

Week One: Introductions and overview

In this first meeting, we’ll get to know each other! After a quick round of introductions, we’ll discuss course requirements, and we’ll learn the “sandwich method” of giving constructive criticism.

We’ll read the prose poem “Be Drunk” by Charles Baudelaire and will examine what makes it work and how it differs from both prose and ordinary “line break” poetry. During a synchronous guided writing period, we’ll work from a prompt. Baudelaire’s poem will be posted on Wet.Ink. It is not necessary to read it before class, though of course you may!

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Sunday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Thursday.

Week Two: A Dream at the Edge of the Sea

We’ll examine “Postcard to I. Kaminsky” by Cecilia Woloch. Our craft talk will include discussion of line breaks, metaphor, fragmentation, and imagery within Woloch’s poem. We’ll look at ways in which the prose poem is similar to, and differs from, “regular” prose and free verse poetry. After a synchronous guided writing period, we’ll examine the work of one or two fellow poets (from Wet.Ink submissions). Woloch’s poem will be posted on Wet.Ink. It is not necessary to read it before class, although of course you may!

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Sunday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Thursday.

Week Three: You Can’t Have It All

We’ll examine the gorgeous “You Can’t Have It All” by Barbara Ras and discuss why it can – or can’t – be considered a prose poem. Then we’ll workshop one or two poems by fellow students before spending some time writing from a prompt. Ras’ poem will be posted on Wet.Ink. It is not necessary to read it before class, although of course you may!

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Sunday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Thursday.

Week Four: Worlds That Sing to You

Annie Lamott wrote, “What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfold world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you.” This week, there’s no professional poem to deconstruct. Instead, we’ll have two intensive synchronous writing periods, punctuated by a discussion of student work.

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Sunday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Thursday.

Week Five: Turn About Is Fair Play

We’re halfway through our time together, and I’ve read lots of your work! This week, we’ll read one of mine – “Then Fall Again.” The poem will be posted on Wet.Ink, but students are also invited to listen to it here: (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/24/then-fall-again)

We’ll discuss “Then Fall Again” and one or two student poems before writing together from a prompt.

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Sunday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Thursday.

Week Six: A Single Uncut Ribbon

Charles Simic may be the best-known prose poet in English. His work is disjointed, dreamlike . . . almost surreal. We’ll read and discuss a poem from The World Doesn’t End, as well as two or three student poems. Then we’ll write together from a prompt. The Simic poem will be posted on Wet.Ink. It is not necessary to read it before class, although of course you may!

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Sunday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Thursday.

Week Seven: Let’s Talk

We’ve been working together for seven weeks! Following a brief discussion of what we’ve learned about prose poetry, what we like (or not) about leaving comments, reading comments, and live workshopping, we’ll write together, working on poems in progress. We’ll share our work, then write synchronously again.

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Sunday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Thursday.

Note: This week, students will be asked to choose a poem of their own from those posted on Wet.Ink for me to discuss and critique in a brief session next week. We’ll talk about this in class!

Week Eight: Just the Two of Us

Frank Gaspar has written, “When I begin writing any particular poem, I have no idea what mode it will come forth in. . . . I let the poems push me around after a point; they seem to know how and where they want to go.” This week, we’ll look at Barbara Henning’s prose poem “With a Bang” and discuss how the poem might change were it presented in line-broken form. “With a Bang” will be posted on Wet.Ink. It is not necessary to read it before class, although of course you may!

Before we begin our synchronous writing session tonight, I’ll present a brief critique of one poem-in-progress by each student.

We will share ideas about when, where and how to submit poems for publication.

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Sunday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Thursday.

Week Nine: Where Will We Flicker?

This week, we’ll read and discuss “A Light Says Why” by Karen Volkman, but most of our session will be spent writing and workshopping student work and generating new work. Our goal, in this penultimate meeting, is to choose two poems for a final polish, in preparation for submission to a journal (optional, but much encouraged!).

“A Light Says Why” will be posted on Wet.Ink. It is not necessary to read it before class, although of course you may!

Homework: Please post a poem on Wet.Ink by Sunday evening. Please read and comment on the work of at least two other students before class on Thursday.

Week Ten: Let’s Go!

No published poem will be discussed in this final session. Between two periods of generative work, each student will select one of his, her, or their works to submit to me for written critique (which I will return within two weeks of this final class). I’ll include ideas about where you might consider submitting the work, and whether – in my opinion – it’s ready for you to give it a try, or if you might try another round of edits before jumping in.

Post-Week Ten

Watch for your personal critique to arrive via email within two weeks of our last class!

Students are invited to re-enroll in this workshop up to three times. Content and coursework will be adapted to the balance of new and returning students.

An advanced pro-class may be offered in the future for students who are actively submitting work and publishing in professional journals.

$595.00Enroll Now