Grackle image by Christy Stallop.
“I didn’t know just yet the true magic that is form poetry, how the restrictions and rules that originally bind the forms can, in new and surprising ways, free you— how poetic forms can evolve the outer-space-in the-spaceship free-verse into a palpable vessel of deep, deep space in which often invisible yet powerful forces can guide the way…” -Rosebud Ben-Oni
How do we recognize or interact with traditional poetic forms? How do poetic forms impact the content and delivery of our written works? In this course, we will engage with traditional forms of poetry in an effort to answer these questions as readers and as writers to determine the function and freedom that can be found in formal poetics. We will discuss common formal structures and how these traditional forms may create surprise and lead to innovation in more contemporary hybrid forms all while we develop an appreciation for the traditions they grew from. We will read closely about formal strategies and craft and workshop our own pieces based on formal concerns and constraints. We will look at the ways in which contemporary poets have breathed new life into older forms such as the sonnet, sestina, pantoum, and more and explore how these forms can be revitalized and reimagined for our contemporary moment. Over this eight-week class we will try our hand at writing in our own voices with form and constraint in mind as a means of writing with a collaborative sense of experimentation and discovery.
Leisa Loan is a poet and editor from Boston, MA. She received her BA in Theatre Arts and Creative Writing from Marymount Manhattan College and her MFA in Poetry from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. At UNLV she was co-managing editor of Interim Poetics. She is a C. Glenn Cambor Fellow at the University of Houston pursuing a PhD in Critical Poetics. Her work has appeared in Hobart and W&S Quarterly. She currently serves as Digital Editor for Gulf Coast.