POST


Post favorite Kocot poems on blog by Feb. 5.

Post favorite Ruefle poem on blog by Feb. 5

Write a Kocot imitation poem (see below** for details)

and hand in on February 5 (at latest Feb 12).

I should have your blog addresses by Feb 5 (I have all but one).

Read through page 59 in the Ruefle book by February 12.

And come prepared to talk about the poems, but especially:

Chad: “One World at a Time”

Carly: “Helium”
Elizabeth: “Hold That Thought”
Ryder: “Paris by Moonlight”
Ashley: “Goodnight Irene”
Samantha: “Jaroslav”
Alexis: “Middle School”
Nick: “Provenance”
Courtney: “A Custom of Mourning”
Justin: “Eric with the Light Brown Hair”

Bring in, with copies, 8 – 12 pp. of poetry for workshop

on February 19.

Ruefle Imitation poem is due on Feb. 19. Please post it on

your blog, along with twenty-five words explaining ANYTHING
at all about the experience of writing it. You can also hand it
in as one of your poems in your 8 – 12 pp of poems that day,
just mark it “Ruefle imitation poem” please).

Write a poem, a loose imitation of Mary Ruefle. It must be

at least 22 lines long (and under fifty lines long). Unlike
Kocot’s poem, this is left open—how you imitate Ruefle
is up to you, HOWEVER, allow the poem to seem autobiographical,
only distorted through an odd lens. Exaggerate—and be comic,
create a WORLD in the poem though (as Ruefle does—this is
subjective). Pay attention to voice. There’s something a bit
loopy, as in Kocot, about Mary’s “vision” which is directly related
interestingly to the persona she has created.

Again, remember, you will bring in 8 - 12 (I revised the
numbers) pages of poems on February 19, and we
will go over them again--it will change a bit on
each run through. More on that today in class . . .

Remember this as well:

**Write a poem, a loose imitation of Noelle Kocot. It must be at
least 22 lines long (and under fifty lines long). It must be written
in third person, and we must find someone's NAME amidst your
lines. Further, it should allow one or more pieces of dialogue.
No line shall contain more than eleven syllables. Tell your tale
in a somewhat breezy, occasionally weird, style, in which
immediacy is favored over a traditionally POETICAL sounding
structure. Voice is important, and accesibility. It should feel
playful but, like the Ashbery imitation, feel like serious ART.
This poem is due on February 5. You can then include it also
with your growing collection of work but you are not required to.

____


My thanks to those who 1. Have their blogs up, and 2.
Have gone ahead and posted their favorite poems by
Kocot and Ruefle. Today is the due date, so I guess that
officially means there are a few hours left . . . Many
of you have taken the initiative and posted your poems
and that is exactly what you should be doing (though it
isn't required). I'll be having you post your own poems
though, as part of different assignments, and work
from each of our books. We'll just do this as we go, a sort
of record of our progress through the semester . . . Feel
free to add whatever you want to the blog as well, posts
about anything at all. See you this evening. We will

Go over how one might submit to magazines, starting at New
Pages, (submittable) etc. More on how to streamline the
process than anything else . . .

I'd like to go over Ruefle's poems, in an introductory,
general way . . .

The Ashbery Imitations . . .

I'd like to talk about the rest of your poems--six packets . . .
poems by Ashley, Justin, Nick, Courtney, Ryder, Alexis.

Link to Publishers Weekly blog.