Classes take place via Zoom on Wednesday evenings between 7 and 9pm.
Session 1 – Wednesday 28 April 2021, 7pm–9pm: Improvising the Poem
An introduction to the course with Maurice & Richard and then Anaphora: examples by Christopher Smart, Wendy Cope, Kenneth Koch, Kim Moore. (With Maurice and Richard)
Session 2 – 5 May: Introduction to the Lyric (and Anti-Lyric)
Thinking through the tropes of lyric poetry – via Sappho, Rilke and Louise Glück – and what they might have to offer you as a poet. Also, what is anti-lyric? (With Richard Scott)
Session 3 – 12 May: Alibis and Excuses
Using ‘voice’ and poems that ‘do another job’ – give recipes, make seductions, offer excuses. (With Maurice Riordan)
Session 4 – 19 May: Editing and Drafting
By examining the drafts of various poems, including one of Richard’s own, we will explore the importance of sensibility, editing and drafting. Which choices might improve our work? And is a poem ever finished? (With Richard Scott)
Session 5 – 26 May: Trivial Pursuits
Writing poems on the spot – or seeming to, e.g. Norman MacCaig, ‘Ten Summer Minutes’; Frank O'Hara's 'lunch' poems. (With Maurice Riordan)
Session 6 – 2 June: Line Breaks and a Prose Poem
When and how might you break the line in poetry? And what constitutes a line for that matter anyway? Just how has the history of poetry treated the line break and what does the future hold? (With Richard Scott)
Session 7 – 9 June: Time Travel
Manipulating time and memory, as Louis MacNeice, ‘Soap Suds’; Colette Bryce, 'The Full Indian Rope Trick'.
(With Maurice Riordan)
Session 8 – 16 June: Your First Workshop
What are the rules of the poetry workshop? How do you interact with someone else’s poem and give constructive feedback? And how might you learn and grow from someone else’s feedback? Welcome to your first poetry workshop. (With Richard Scott)
Session 9 – 23 June: Mixing Registers.
Using different registers of the language, such as the religious, scientific, legal; or specialized vocabulary, such as dental terms in Paul Farley’s ‘Relic’. (With Maurice Riordan)
Session 10 – 30 June: The Sonnet and Some Uses for Form
Just what is so durable about the sonnet and its volta? And what might it offer you as a poet writing today? Indeed, just how might the many historic forms – including sonnet, haiku, villanelle etc. – be useful? (With Richard Scott)
Session 11 – 7 July: Mixing Genres
Prose and Poetry, and some principles of lineation. (With Maurice Riordan)
Session 12 – 14 July: Consolidation, Next Steps & Group Reading
In this session we’ll be thinking about the next steps on your poetic journey – including publishing & how to perform your own poetry – and there’ll be a celebratory group reading. (With Maurice Riordan & Richard Scott)