Essential Patterns--Poetic Forms

Essential Patterns--Poetic Forms (starting at $99)

The rondeau, villanelle, sestina, and triolet are among the fixed poetic forms whose structure is based on repetition. The poems have a lovely musical quality and the expressions that surface again and again stay with the reader. The trick is to come up with the perfect lines that form the essential pattern of the poem. In this two-part intensive workshop, we will read aloud, and even attempt to memorize example poems, as a group, from a carefully curated list. We will hear the poems "off the page" and allow the form to become part of our "inner ear." We will then participate in generative writing exercises, where we learn to listen to the important expressions and phrases that guide our own lives, and turn them into exquisite formal poems.

Carmen Bugan, George Orwell Prize Fellow, published her sixth collection of poems, Tristia, earlier this year. She is an award-winning author of 10 books that include memoir, essays, and criticism. Her work has been translated into several languages, gathered international praise, and has been widely anthologized. Carmen's memoir, Burying the Typewriter, was BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and she has been featured on NPR, , ABC, PRI and the BBC.