Writing Poems on Family [Esther Lin]

All Levels | How do we make poems of a collective memory? Poetry is fertile ground for the complications of every family. In this generative class, we will draft poems about our family life, and we will pay close attention to the decisions poets like Meena Alexander, Henri Cole, Natasha Trethewey make of childhood, loss, and inheritance. We will examine how poetry creates formal order out of emotional disorder. Students should expect weekly reading assignments, in-class writing exercises, and to draft 4-5 poems.