POET 93 — The Imaginative Leap: A Generative Poetry Workshop
Quarter: Spring
Instructor(s): Caroline Goodwin
Date(s): Apr 22—May 27
Class Recording Available: No
Class Meeting Day: Wednesdays
Class Meeting Time: 6:00—8:30 pm (PT)
Tuition: $655
Refund Deadline: Apr 24
Unit(s): 1
Enrollment Limit: 18
Status: Registration opens Feb 23, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Spring
Day: Wednesdays
Duration: 6 weeks
Time: 6:00—8:30 pm (PT)
Date(s): Apr 22—May 27
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $655
Refund Deadline: Apr 24
Instructor(s): Caroline Goodwin
Enrollment Limit: 18
Recording Available: No
Status: Registration opens Feb 23, 8:30 am (PT)
Most poems begin with a spark. Our memories are grounded in sensory images and hold everything we need to begin. A poem can grow from something as simple as a list. In this welcoming course, open to both beginners and experienced poets, we’ll explore how memory and imagination intertwine to create art. We’ll begin with Christopher Dewdney’s A Natural History of Southwestern Ontario and Christopher Smart’s "Jubilate Agno," two terrific examples of list poems, noting how close observation can open into complexity and surprise. We’ll then turn to work by Elizabeth Bishop, Dylan Thomas, and Gerard Manley Hopkins as inspiration for experimenting with new poetic forms. Through guided prompts, conversation, and supportive feedback, we’ll cultivate a space of play, curiosity, and discovery that invites you to make the imaginative leap to find poems waiting to be written. Working in class, students will produce one poem draft per week for oral feedback from both instructor and peers.
CAROLINE GOODWIN
Author
Caroline Goodwin was a Stegner Fellow in poetry. Her most recent books are Madrigals, Matanuska, and Old Snow, White Sun. Her essay "The Money Place" was listed as a notable essay of 2021 in The Best American Essays, and her essay "A Widow's Guide to OKCupid" was runner-up in the Barry Lopez Creative Nonfiction contest at CUTTHROAT journal. She was the first poet laureate of San Mateo County and received an MFA from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook, any (ISBN 978-0156724005)
(Required) Eavan Boland(Ed.) and Mark Strand(Ed), The Making of a Poem (ISBN 978-0393321784)
(Required) Eavan Boland(Ed.) and Mark Strand(Ed), The Making of a Poem (ISBN 978-0393321784)