The Deep Dive: Poem As Self-Discovery

We will be looking at exploring our relationship to ourselves, focusing on imagery, learning new ways to look at ourselves within and without, inspired by Chen Chen’s poem, “Self Portrait as So Much Potential,” and Meghan Sterling’s “Self-Portrait with Quilt and Synesthesia,” we will be writing our own Self-Portrait Poems.

Assignment: Self Portrait Poem 14-25 lines in length and reading fellow student work before the first class.

We will be focusing on structuring our poems around our sleep and our dreams. We will use anaphora and epistrophe to help us do so. We will be looking at examples by Edward Hirsch and Sharon Olds. We will write, “In the dream…” poems.

Assignment: Write a poem about sleeping and/or dreaming that employs both anaphora and epistrophe 3 times each—14-25 lines in length. Student work reading.

We will be focusing on poetry as prayer, hope, wish, praise, looking at “Prayer for My Unborn Niece” by Ross Gay and “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins.

Assignment: Write a 20-30 line poem that begins with the line, “Every poem is a prayer.” Student work reading.

We will be looking at our childhood memories and new ways of telling them, trying out a list poem by looking at Danez Smith’s “alternate names for black boys” and lyric poems by looking at “The Dead” by Susan Mitchell.

Assignment: Write a list poem about childhood joys/sorrows and a 14-line poem about your memory of going to bed as a child. Student work reading.

We will discuss one of the great powers of poetry, which is the ability to rewrite the past, and redefine/reframe experiences into new ones. One way we will be discussing that is by talking about redefining phrases and words we have known that we want to reclaim.

Assignment: Write a poem about new beginnings/beginning again. Student work reading.

We will discuss the magic of utilizing white space when writing poetry. We’ll cover he way we can employ white space to signify pauses, breaks in time, and new meanings. We’ll also be discussing and practicing making new line breaks in our work to discover effective ways to tell our stories.

Assignment: Part 1: Write a 14 line poem based on a memory of family—how can where you end each line create tension/drama/convey the emotions you felt during the experience? Part 2: Take a poem you have already written and change the line breaks—end early, end later—mess it up. See what happens. Student work reading.

We will be looking at ways to celebrate and grieve experiences in our lives (sickness, loss, growth, milestones) through our poetry. Looking at “Untitled” by Jason Schinder and “The Wild iris” by Louise Gluck.

Assignment: Write a 14-line poem about the last time you saw something stunningly beautiful. Then write a 14 line poem about the last time you saw something terribly sad. Can you weave these poems together? Student work reading.

We will be writing Snapshot poems, or “Still Life” poems—a poem that holds an image in its center. We will look at examples by Diane Seuss, Susan Rich, and Meghan Sterling. We will write the poem together and share as a class. We will also discuss journals to send work to.