WHERE WE ARE NOW


Tonight's pretty simple . . . we'll go over a few poems in
Trances of the Blast. I don't necessarily expect you to model
yourself after any given poet we read, but incorporating
some of the basic ideas presented in the work, thematic or
stylistic, is a pretty good idea. Some poets will "speak" to
you more than others.

We will begin the "workshop" portion of this class by
allowing each person to read a poem, and perhaps explain it
a bit. We will not have read this poem beforehand so we'll
be ABLE to respond more viscerally. Does it, to paraphrase
Emily Dickinson, make it feel as if "the top of my head has
been taken off?"

But also refer to the manuscript criteria sheet (do this all term).

I will hand out another in-class writing assignment and we will
write for twelve minutes again.

There is also an assignment using Ruefle (handout) in which
you choose a MR poem and write a short text about it. you'll
see . . . this is due next week, along with the Lit Mag review . . .

Reading for next week:

Your classmates' poems, alphabetical order by last name--so
I expect we will do five or six on January 28, then the next
four or five on Feb. 4. Again, comment according to the criteria
handed out, generally. Feel free to edit, etc., but we will be look-
ing at the work and its general ARC a little more closely. How
is this book beginning to define itself, thematically, stylistically?
Is it the kind of work that teaches you how to read it as it goes
along?

Trances of the Blast: 41-75.

Field Guide to Prose Poetry: essays and poems on the following
pages: 3-13, 41-47, 56-63.