First and foremost, this course is a course about perception and seeing. Artists perceive ordinary things through ordinary language, and cut, splice, combine, and reimagine the world and words into something new. Today, art, based on passionate and empathetic perception, is more important than ever. Ruth Asawa’s daughter said she sketched almost every day to strengthen her ability to see. I believe in the transformative power of art now more than ever, and think it begins with deep perception. 

On a practical basis, this course is an introduction to the pleasures and joys of reading and writing of poetry. As part of this course, we will study traditions of poetic practice and theory, in parallel with a weekly workshop session focused on the student’s own poems. Each week, students will learn about various elements of poetry such as imagery, the line, rhythm, sound, form, syntax, diction, tone, content, theme, and others. Each week, students will write a poem and together workshop each other’s poems. Workshop will focus on the possibilities of a poem, the possibilities of revision, and the various ways we can help a poem expand in possibilities. In addition, we will do a fair amount of reading in this class through course texts below and poetry the professor may bring into class. Students will also attend poetry readings and other possible activities as part of Poetry@Tech programming.