POETRY WRITING Ken
Weisner
EWRT 41-61 (#0941), Spring, 2008 Phone:
864-5797
Tuesday evenings, 6:00-9:40 P.M., L-46 Office:
Forum 2C
e-mail:
weisnerken@fhda.edu + gyre@cruzio.com
Office
hrs: FORUM 2C: Mondays, 5:00-6:00; Tuesdays,
3:45-4:45 (and by appt.);
Wednesdays
(8:10-9:00); Thursdays, 12:30-1:30.
***COURSE WEBSITE: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DeAnzaPoetryWritingSpring2008
Ken's Home Page: http://www.cruzio.com/~gyre
Ken's portal site: http://www.deanza.fhda.edu/faculty/weisner
"Green
Sheet"
Course Goals:
� write a poem a
week and end the quarter with a portfolio of new work
� write
something every day; keep a notebook just for your creative writing
� read
and appreciate a variety of poems and hear and read poetry aloud
� expand
and confront your assumptions about poetry and your own poems
� participate
in a community of working poets and writers
� give
and receive supportive, thoughtful feedback
� get
better at talking about the elements of poetry
� revise,
finish, and send out new poems
Course Requirements:
� attend
all Tuesday evening workshops; be devoted to our community of poets.
�
be in class on time and prepared with notebook, poems, texts.
�
hand in one new poem each week: please type and bring copies to class.
�
sign up to present work of one favorite contemporary poet to the class.
�
submit work for class worksheet on at least two occasions.
�
post at least three times to course listserv including responses to classmates�
work.
�
hand in a final portfolio of 8-10 (10-20 pp.) revised poems
�
participate in our class reading (evening of final exam)
�
submit 3-5 of your poems to "Red Wheelbarrow" before May 23 deadline
�
attend student/instructor conference as arranged
Extra Credit Options (60 pts. possible) (negotiate
pts./projects with instructor)
�
Attend every class period (in its entirety) (30 pts) (all but one class, 15
pts)
�
Participate on Brian Turner interview team, April 11 12:30-2:00, WRC (ATC 309)
�
Attend readings during in �Multicultural LitFest� May 5-8 (details TBA)
�
Participate in Bob Dickerson�s poetry writing week at the WRC, May 12-15
(details TBA)
�
Organize and/or participate in an on-campus open-mike poetry reading.
�
Attend a poetry reading or event in the community and report on it.
�
Find a great book of poems or�poetry website or video�and report on it.
�
Memorize and perform some of your own poetry or someone else's poetry.
� Multimedia
work: integrate your own poetry with art, film, theater, music or dance.
�
Write and perform a group poem.
�
Take a leadership role in our virtual poetry community "e-group."
�
Make a chapbook of your own poetry and/or favorite student work.
�
Translate two poems from a writer published in another language you know.
Required Texts
� Addonizio,
Kim and Laux, Dorianne, The Poet�s Companion
W.W.
Norton, New York (Available at Campus Bookstore)
� Weisner,
EWRT 41 Course Reader, Spring 2008.
� A
notebook you love that is only for this course.
Recommended Texts:
� Chin,
Marilyn. Rhapsody in Plain Yellow. W.W. Norton, New York. 2000.
� Turner,
Brian. Here, Bullet. Alice James Books, Farmington, Maine, 2005.
� Young,
Al. Heaven.
Creative Arts Book Company, Berkeley, CA, 1992.
� Young,
Al. Something About the Blues. Sourcebooks; Naperville, Illinois 2008.
Weekly Worksheet: If you want a new poem considered for the weekly
worksheet, please e-mail it to me by the Sunday evening before class. I'll ask for volunteers each week for
the following week's worksheet; everyone should go at least twice. If you ever hand in a poem that you definitely do not
want others to see (on a worksheet), just please make sure to indicate that on
the poem.
Notebooks:
Notebooks
can contain anything�notes from text and class; poem drafts including in-class writings; lines,
dreams, fragments, freewrites, beginnings; ideas for poems and ideas about
poetry; anything you find that you think you might use as a poet�from
"found poems" to quotations to newspaper clippings; poems you like
that you want to paste or copy in there�etc. This notebook is your creative repository as an artist and
explorer in poetry. Write in it
every day. Carry it around. Sleep
next to it. Don�t lose it!
Presentations:
Find a
poem you like in the Course Reader, the Addonizio/Laux A Poets
Companion. Seek out one additional poem by
that same poet and then find out a little bit about the poet. In a 5-10-minute class presentation, read and
show us one or two of the poems you found and tell us how and why they succeed
as poems�and what you as a poet learn from them. Provide us with a one page handout that contains any poem
you share that we don't already have a copy of, plus a summary of any critical,
biographical, or bibliographical info or thoughts that you decided to
share. Cite any sources you
use. If you get me the handout by
my Tuesday office hour, I can make copies for you. If you want to propose a
creative or alternative approach to the presentation, just let me know (see
extra-credit options for a few ideas).
Typical class agenda (this will vary):
6:00-6:40, In-class writing, introduce writing models
(text, reader)
6:40-7:30, Small group sharing (homework), peer feedback
7:30-7:45, Presentations on poets
7:45-8:00, BREAK
8:05-9:00, Weekly worksheet
9:00-9:40, Flexible time: more worksheet time, videos, additional writing time,
extra credit presentations,
upcoming assignment clarification.
Grading*:
Attendance and participation (class, small groups, and
online)
200 points
Weekly typed homework (new poems) (50 x 10)
500 points
Poem Presentation
100 points
Final Portfolio
(revised, including reading, poems sent out)
250 points
1,000 points
*(700 to pass)
Students with grade option:
A=
920-1000 A-
=900-919
B+ =880-899
B=
820-879
B- =800-819
C+ =780-799
C= 700-779
D =600-699
F =0-599
Some Cautionary Notes:
*Attendance is vital to this course. Talk to, e-mail or telephone instructor when you need to
miss all�or part�of a class. Don't
miss more than two classes or you could be dropped. Also, please be prompt;
tardiness and early departures will be monitored and strip away points from
your participation grade.
*Reminder: don't plagiarize (steal the words and ideas of others);
plagiarism gives you an "F" on the assignment in question and
perilously jeopardizes your ability to pass the class.
Tentative Course Schedule
April
8 Course
and student introductions.
In-class writing, sharing, discussion.
Get reader & course text. Discuss Brian Turner opportunity.
*Reader:
"Riddles," Stafford
"Ways to Say"
*Reader:
Writing about Animals
(Hughes,
Williams, Neruda, Stern, Roethke, et. al.)
April
9-11 *Brian
Turner Interview (Optional events)
April 9 (Wed)
Brian Turner Interview dry run, L-64, 4:30
April 11 (Fri)
Brian Turner Interview, 12:30, WRC (ATC 309)
April
15 from Addonizio
and Laux, The Poet's Companion
"Introduction," "Writing and
Knowing" and
"The
Family, Inspiration and Obstacle," 11-38
*Reader:
Memories and portraits with a leap:
Olds, Braz Valentine, Clifton, Kunitz,
Roethke, Thomas
"En los Ojos de mi Madre"
(Agosin)
April
22 LitFest
preview: discuss and find inspiration in poetry of Al Young
"Images," "Similes and
Metaphor," 85-103
*Reader: Piercy, Ondaatje, Beatty (similes)
Simic (objects, figures,
personifications)
Atwood (Concrete narrative)
April
29 LitFest preview: discuss and find inspiration in
poetry of Regie Cabico
"Poetry
of Place," 74-84
Wright, Frost, Stafford, et. al
Section forms: Hass, Bly
"What
is my Country" (Stafford, Pacheco)
"The
Music of the Line," 104-114
*Reader:
Alarcon, Williams, O'Hara
May 5-8 *Multicultural
LitFest (optional)
Tues.
May 6 12:30 Al Young reading
Wed.
May 7 12:30 Marilyn Chin reading
Wed.
May 7 2:30 Regie
Cabico workshop
Thurs. May 8 12:30 Francisco Jimenez
reading (non-fiction prose)
Thurs. May 8 2:30 Regie
Cabico performance
May
6 LitFest
preview: discuss and find inspiration in poetry of Marilyn Chin
"Writing
the Erotic," 46-55
"Stop Making Sense: Dreams and
Experiments," (129-137)
*Reader: Love poems: Breton, Knott, Neruda
Odes (poems of praise): Neruda
style, et. al.
May 12-15 *Poetry
Writing Week (optional) with Bob Dickerson
(4:00-5:30 P.M. Monday-Thursday, WRC, ATC 309)
May
13 "Witnessing," 74-84, "Repetition, Rhythm and Blues," 151-160
*Reader:
Olds, Forche, Weigl, Baca (poets of witness).
May
20 "Death
and Grief" 39-45; "Meter, Rhyme, and Form," 138-150
*Reader:
Sonnets (Addonizio. Justice, Shakespeare, et. al)
May 19-24 Red
Wheelbarrow Deadline this week
(submit 3-5 poems)
May
27 The
Shadow," 56-63
"More
Repetition: Villanelle, Pantoum, Sestina," 161-170
*Reader:
Justice, Roethke, Bishop
Transformations: (Levertov, Williams,
Neruda)
June
3 "Voice
and Style," 115-128, "The Energy of Revision" 186-192
*Reader:
After works of art (Rilke, Williams, Auden)
June
10 "A
Grammatical Excursion," 171-194,
"Getting Published" 217-224
*Reader:
Words themselves (diction)
(Kinnell, McPherson, Francis, et. al.)
June
17 No reading assigned.
June
24 Special class time: 6:15-8:15. Final: reading and party. Portfolio due.
June
25 Red
Wheelbarrow Publication Celebration
(6:15-8:30 PM, WRC-ATC 309)