The Art and Craft of Poetry

Facilitator: Bryan Roth

Contact information: 970.430.9831

rothwrites@yahoo.com

Class length: 2 hours, Thursdays

Class time: 1:30-3:30 p.m.

Class duration: 8 weeks, Sept 10-Oct 29

Place: Foxtail 2

Class size: 15

Presentations: yes

Required Text: The Poetry Home Repair Manual, by Ted Kooser

The Vintage Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry (second edition), edited by J.D. McClatchy

Course Description:

Whether you’re writing for fun, or just for yourself—or hoping to get published someday—or you’ve already been published; whether you’re just beginning to write poetry, or you’ve been writing poetry all your life, this class can help you take your writing to the next level.

For example, did you know that you can change the meaning of a poem just by changing where the line “breaks” (i.e., where the line ends) in the poem? You can! And I will show you how! This is just one of the many “craft” elements of poetry you will learn about (and possibly the most important one)!

This will not be a class about memorizing poetry terms or studying different metrical arrangements that are possible in English poetry. This will primarily be a writing class, which will help you think like an artist—like a poet!—to help you can make better choices when writing your own poems. So, there will be some “craft” talk, but it will mostly be about the “art” of writing.

Participants should bring five poems (or rough drafts of poems) they have been working on—but think still need some work—to the first class session. (If you’ve never written a poem before, that’s fine! You will be writing some poems during the eight weeks we are together!)