Advanced Poetry Workshop: The Sequence

Multiple short poems gathered into a single yet open-ended structure-this way of working has been remarkably productive for 20th- and 21st-century poets. In this workshop, you will experiment with ways of writing, accruing, counting, dispersing, shuffling, stacking, and otherwise arranging your own "little boxes." We will read and discuss a range of modern and contemporary poetic sequences as models, paying particular attention to matters of craft: How are syllables, words, lines, and stanzas effectively arranged within a short poem? How are short poems effectively arranged in relation to one another? What's the relation of parts to wholes in a poem or a sequence? What roles might repetition, variation, and echo play? We'll also think about ways the sequence can serve as an instrument of attention: How might writing "in pieces" help us notice and name things, events, feelings, and ideas that otherwise remain unnoticed or inarticulate? How might sequential composition open our writing to improvisation, unpredictability, and generative bewilderment? Poets studied may include: Mina Loy, Gertrude Stein, George Oppen, Robert Creeley, Rae Armantrout, Fanny Howe, Ed Roberson, Michael O'Brien, Nathaniel Mackey, Joseph Donahue, and others. Over the course of the quarter you will write and revise an extended poetic sequence of your own, and our class meetings will mix writing activities, seminar discussion of our readings, and ongoing workshop discussion of your sequences-in-progress.