Advanced Poetry with Elizabeth Metzger: Endings and Beginnings

Overview

In this four-session workshop at the turn of the year, we will consider poetry as a non-linear project by considering the openings and closures of poems as well as the relationship between generation and revision. As the year turns, we will turn to language to explore themes of resolution and wish, season and transformation, hibernation and lyric time, and silence. We will also consider beginnings and endings in terms of poetic lineage and manuscript placement. Readings will include select poems by Franz Wright, Jean Valentine, Aracelis Girmay, Anne Carson, Lucille Clifton, Anne Sexton, Sandra Lim, James Wright, and Diana Khoi Nguyen. We may read excerpts of texts by Sharon Cameron, Louise Gluck, Lucie Brock-Broido, and Ed LaChappele. In this split December/January workshop, each poet will come away with verbal and written feedback (from instructor and peers) on one new poem and one revision. Prompts will be geared toward beginnings and endings, in craft, theme, and revision techniques. 

Please be advised this class skips December 21, 28, and January 4.