CRW 3311.001 Summer 2023 Adesina

This course is for aspiring poets and critics. The course studies the elements of poetry with some practice in writing poetry.The goal of this class is to give you a solid foundation in the art of writing and reading poetry. We will employ various techniques including forms, metaphors, and imageries to unlock how aspiring poets and writers might start their journey of writing well crafted and emotionally true poems.

We will also pay attention to how to closely read a poem and see, like map lines, the logic of beauty with which it was made. This is called reading like a writer, and it’s the real pleasure of poetry. Together, we will create a kind, inspiring and safe space, and within that space we will pursue our learning objective through craft, and workshop sessions. We will study and read works by Leonard Cohen, Sharon Olds, Sylvia Plath, Terrance Hayes, Ocean Vuong, Jericho Brown, Tracy K. Smith, and other brilliant poets and contemporary writers working now in our lifetime and the new ways they continue to make excellent art.