Courses

While some people think of poetry as an elevated, even inaccessible form, much of the most beautiful and enduring poetry has been written in ordinary, everyday language. In this workshop, we will study the effective uses of “plain language” in poetry, considering why poems written in plain speech often feel the most intimate, piercing, and memorable. We’ll look at examples by writers such as Mary Oliver, Richard Siken, Nikki Giovanni, and Jericho Brown, focusing on accessible poems that hold deep complexities of meaning. We’ll undertake a variety of playful, generative in-class activities, including reading a series of short poems to examine the effects of restraint and experimenting with “translating” Shakespeare into contemporary, colloquial language. Students will receive weekly writing prompts, along with multiple opportunities to workshop their own poems. By the end of the course, students will feel more comfortable writing poems in their own voices, with a heightened appreciation for the effectiveness and scope of everyday language.