Grackle Art by Anna Podris
What makes a poem sing, or whisper, or chant, or curse—that is, make memorable speech? How do you craft that echo when one sound calls another to the surface—stress to stress, line to line? Sometimes the smallest beat, breath, or break can turn a poem’s ordinary sense into what Seamus Heaney called “the music of what happens.”
In this six-week workshop, we’ll tune our ears to poetry’s music through a weekly craft frame, a generative prompt, and a supportive workshop. We’ll read short excerpts from Robert Pinsky ( The Sound of Poetry), James Longenbach (The Art of the Poetic Line), and Denise Levertov (“On the Function of the Line”). We’ll investigate sonic patterns that stir and surprise; we’ll write poems that make sense through the senses.
This course is a joyful romp, fun for poets at all stages of experience. By the end, you’ll leave with new poems, sharper ears, and a keener attention to the key quality that singles poetry out from prose: its complex of lines.
Our synchronous Zoom sessions will center on craft discussions, peer workshop, and generative prompts. Outside of class, you’ll read short excerpts and example poems—mainly modern and contemporary—to inspire your writing and ground our shared vocabulary.
Sarah Anne Stinnett is a poet, educator, and interdisciplinary artist. She teaches at Berklee Online and Southern New Hampshire University. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ploughshares, Poet Lore, Plume, Tar River Poetry, and Chicago Quarterly Review. Her book was named finalist for the Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award and the Perugia Press First Poetry Book Prize. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University and an ALM in Dramatic Arts from Harvard University.
