343s

English 343 Creative Writing: Poetry:

Fall 2009
Dr. Steve Klepetar Centennial Hall 209 Phone: 320-308-5642
email: sfklepetar@stcloudstate.edu

Please Read the Syllabus Carefully; most questions about the course, including emailing work, not using attachments, due dates, grading procedures, the portfolio, etc. are answered below. If you do not find the information you need, feel free to contact me.

Student Learning Outcomes:

1. Students will lean the process of making poems, which includes careful observation with all senses alert; perception; playfulness; and craft.

2. Student will learn to create vivid images using precise and specific sensory language.

3. Students will learn to shape their poems by employing both end-stopped and enjambed (or run-on) lines, and experimenting with forms such as the haiku, limerick, sonnet, villanelle, as well as with free verse, and parody/imitations of poets like William Carlos Williams and Robert Frost. Some students may choose to work in concrete forms (shape poems) as well.

4. Students will learn to incorporate action into their poems, calling upon observation, memory and imagination.

5. Students will work on editing skills as they revise and assemble a portfolio of ten poems chosen to represent their best, most polished work.

Text: Boisseau, Michelle, Robert Wallace and Mann, Randall. Writing Poems. Boston: Little, Brown, 7th ed., 2008.

"Go in fear of abstractions."--Ezra Pound.

Coursework and Grading:

· Submit all work via email directly to me at sfklepetar@stcloudstate.edu – no attachments please.

· Grades for this course will be based on weekly writing (two-thirds) and on a final project or portfolio (one-third).

· Weekly Writing – Please submit work by email. Exercises are listed below. Please click on the exercise to get the directions. I recommend doing them in

sequence. Please indicate which exercises you are submitting and include 343 in the subject line of your email.

· Grading for weekly work: I do not grade individual poem. Grades for weekly writing are based on the number of poems you complete during the semester. If you complete 20 poems, you will earn an A for the weekly writing portion of the grade; if you complete 19, you will earn an A-; 18 = B+; 17 = B; 16 = C; 15 = C-; 14 = D; Fewer than 14 = F. Please note that the penalty for not submitting work increases rapidly; the key to success is to write and submit work regularly.

· – Portfolio – The final project is a portfolio of ten poems, selected from those you wrote for class, arranged, revised and edited with an appropriate and interesting title.

Exercises are listed below. There are 29 exercises but you need only do 20 to earn an A for the weekly work. Please email poems directly to me, and I will respond by email within a day or two. If you do not hear from me within three days, please inquire to make sure I received your work. Please do not send attachments – poems and portfolio should appear in the body of your email.

A word about what poems look like:

1. Do not put quotation marks around your own title (and do write a title – they help provide context)

2. A good way to handle the title is the make it one font size larger than the poem and set it off with an extra space, like this:

In the City of Sand

Below this web of stars, child-bearer

and clown, we open our hands to the moon.

Silent threads dangle in the atmosphere.

Everywhere glowing eyes and vanishing

scent of hemlock and oak. Paintings burned

in these tunnels of light, dancing figures with

triple horns, vibrant filaments wave and swing

from stylized hands. Turn and your mind

goes blank, wake and you have lost another day.

Here in the city of sand we look for signs

telling of rivers and loam and dripping clothes.

3. Notice that you do not have to begin each line with a capital letter. Some poets do (for some poems) but you can follow the basic rules of the English sentence – that often works better. Here are two examples by Rita Dove. The first uses capital letters to begin each line, while the second does not:

Adolescence II

Although it is night, I sit in the bathroom, waiting.

Sweat prickles behind my knees, the baby-breasts are alert.

Venetian blinds slice up the moon; the tiles quiver in pale strips.

Then they come, the three seal men with eyes as round

As dinner plates and eyelashes like sharpened tines.

They bring the scent of licorice. One sits in the washbowl,

One on the bathtub edge; one leans against the door.

"Can you feel it yet?" they whisper.

I don't know what to say, again. They chuckle,

Patting their sleek bodies with their hands.

"Well, maybe next time." And they rise,

Glittering like pools of ink under moonlight,

And vanish. I clutch at the ragged holes

They leave behind, here at the edge of darkness.

Night rests like a ball of fur on my tongue.

Persephone, Falling


One narcissus among the ordinary beautiful flowers, one unlike all the others! She pulled, stooped to pull harder— when, sprung out of the earth on his glittering terrible carriage, he claimed his due. It is finished. No one heard her. No one! She had strayed from the herd. (Remember: go straight to school. This is important, stop fooling around! Don't answer to strangers. Stick with your playmates. Keep your eyes down.) This is how easily the pit opens. This is how one foot sinks into the ground.

The first poem works with a simple fixed form – three line stanzas, and that probably accounts for why she chose the more formal method of beginning lines with capital letters.  The second poem has a freer, more open form, one more appropriate to the pattern of sentences.

DEADLINES: It is extremely important that you turn in work regularly and on time; you must meet the deadlines below to receive credit for your work. If you are unable or unwilling to do so, please do not take this class. PLEASE NOTE THAT THE LINKS TO THE EXERCISES ARE BELOW.

Here are the deadlines. Submit two poems via email on or before each of the following dates:

Thursday, September 3: Read Writing Poems, Chapter 1: Starting Out, pp. 1 - 21

Exercise 1 - Sense Impression Poem.

Exercise 2 - Object Poem.

Thursday, September 10: Read Writing Poems, Chapter 6: Subject Matter, pp. 111 - 135

Exercise 3 - Memory Poem.

Exercise 4 - Magic Box Poem.

Thursday, September 17: Read Writing Poems, Chapter 7: Metaphor, pp. 136 – 159.

Exercise 5 - Color Poem.

Exercise 6 - Descriptive Scene Poem.

Thursday, September 24: Read Writing Poems, Chapter 10: Finding the Poem, pp. 207 -230.

Exercise 7 - Tactile poem.

Exercise 8 - Window Poem.

Thursday, October 1: Read Writing Poems, Chapter 8: Tale, Teller and Tone, pp. 160 -181.

Exercise 9 - Portrait Poem.

Exercise 10 - Public Sketch Poem.

Thursday, October 8 – No Poems Due

Thursday, October 15 – No Poems Due

Monday, October 19 (PLEASE NOTE THE MONDAY DUE DATE!!!): Read Writing Poems: Chapter 9: The Mysteries of Language, pp. 182 – 204

Exercise 11 - Ordinary Event Poem.

Exercise 12 - Dream Poem.

Thursday, October 29: Read Writing Poems, chapter 2: Verse, pp. 23 - 43

Exercise 13 - Imitation Poem - "So much depends...."

Exercise 14 - Encyclopedia Poem

Thursday, November 5:Read Writing Poems, chapter 3: Making the Line (I), pp. 44 – 68.

Exercise 15 - Imitation Poem - "Whose woods these are..."

Exercise 16 - Limerick.

Thursday, November 12: Read Writing Poems, chapter 4: Making the Line (II), pp. 69 – 88.

Exercise 17 - Sonnet.

Exercise 18 - Villanelle.

Thursday, November 19: Read Writing Poems, chapter 5: The Sound (And Look) of Sense, pp. 89 – 109.

Exercise 19 - Word List Poem.

Exercise 20 - Sound Poem.

There are nine additional exercises at the bottom of the syllabus; these may be substituted for the exercises above anytime at your discretion.

Thursday, December 10: Portfolio Due. This gives you time to revise work, assemble your best ten, edit and proofread. I will not be able to accept late work.

Please note that there are a total of 29 exercises, but you only need do 20. The last 9 may be used as substitutes.

Please Note Well: Late work will not be accepted – you must submit work on or before the date listed to have it count.

Q: Why deadlines? We’re poets, free spirits who write when inspiration hits! Why can’t we turn in work whenever?

A: All writers have to meet deadlines. In the nineteenth century, Charles Dickens wrote many of his novels for magazine publication, a few chapters each month. Often he was finishing just as the magazine was ready to go to press. The printer would send a messenger (affectionately known as a “printer’s devil”) to get the last sheets from the frantic writer. More importantly, this class is designed to encourage development over the semester. That requires regular writing and response. Turning in a large portion of the work at the end defeats this essential component of the course.

Again, If you are unwilling or unable to meet these deadlines, please do not take this class.

2. Final Project – Portfolio : 10 poems, representing your best work; arranged in the order you want them read; title for the collection (Portfolios without a title will lose ½ a letter grade); submit via email – no attachments. Please follow these directions; your portfolio should be submitted in the body of an email, just like the weekly work. Do not send your portfolio to Continuing Studies.

The portfolio should contain your ten best poems from the work you did this semester in their final, polished version.

Portfolio Grading:

A = Outstanding, work that is sharp, polished, filled with image, action, strong word choices, imagination. This grade is for publishable work. A- = Excellent, nearly publishable work. A and A- will be reserved for the best work.

B+ = Very Good, with perhaps some development needed. B = Good, appealing work. Some poems are not quite there yet in terms of image, action, word choices, and imaginative energy. B- = Solid, but at this point there still needs to be considerable development. Much good work will fall into this category.

C range = Ok, but needs considerable work in terms of creating images and action, selecting the right words, developing ideas, imaginative thrust. Work that lacks extra effort will fall into this category.

D = Flawed work, looks hasty, slapped together. This is rare for students who bother to turn in a portfolio.

A Word about computers and web access: In order to take an online class, you must have access to a reliable computer and to the web. This is your responsibility. If your computer or web access fails, you must deal with it immediately. If you come to campus, there are hundreds of computers you can use; if not, you can use a public library, internet café, or a friend’s computer. You are still responsible for meeting deadlines.

A word about fonts: Writing poetry is about the poems, not the fonts. Avoid color or fancy (and often hard to read fonts); don’t distract from the work itself. I recommend Times New Roman or Ariel 10 or 12 point fonts in black.

A word about revision: I encourage you to experiment, take risks. You can usually improve your work by careful revision. Here is a poem and a revision by student poet Nyssa Dahlberg:

Moving on (draft one)

With a beer can in hand
he half-saunters, half-staggers
onward.

With no diamond ring on her finger
she sits at home eating ice-cream
she tells herself she must move
onward.

A firefighter and police man
clean blood at a crime scene
their eyes stop dancing
the next day they must forget and go
onward.

Moving on (revised)

With a beer can in hand
he half-saunters, half-staggers
onward.

With no diamond ring on her finger
she remains at home inhaling ice-cream
she tells herself she must move
onward.

A firefighter and police man
clean blood at a crime scene
their eyes cease to glisten
the next day they must forget and go
onward.

A homeless child digs

through a dumpster

tonight a meal does not surface

she clutches her rumbling tummy

And thinks, ‘tomorrow I will march

onward.’

Notice how “eating ice cream” becomes “inhaling ice cream” in the revision. More than that, Nyssa adds a strong concluding stanza with an action – a child digging through a dumpster, its tummy “rumbling.” In this case, changing particular words and adding active images improves the poem considerably.

Here is another example of Nyssa’s act of revision:

Color Poem (draft one)

Blue eyes stare vacant like an empty garbage bag.

Your pink sweater hangs on your malnourished body

Your skin so thin I can see the chalk-like ribs

Thin, like a manila envelope, this is what society forces

You think you need to look like celebrities who walk the red carpet

You strive to be perfect like a gray, cracked and broken china doll

Everyone says how good you look as they pass with a flip of blond hair

You feed off the positive energy and turn it into blackness, starving

You pick at the greens on your plate as if were toxic waste

If you were to take a nibble of the bloody red steak,

Hours would be spent over the purple porcelain toilet

I know how you lost all that pink baby fat, was it worth it?

Color Poem (revised and thinner)

Blue eyes stare vacant

like an empty garbage bag.

Her pink sweater hangs

on a malnourished body.

Her skin, so thin, I can see

the chalk-like ribs.

Thin, like a manila envelope,

this is what society forces.

She thinks she needs to look

like celebrities who walk

the blood, death-red carpet.

She strives to be perfect like

a gray, cracked and shattered

china doll.

Everyone says how good she looks

as they pass with a flip of blond hair

not caring about her unhealthy gaze.

She feeds off the “positive energy”

and turns it into blackness,

starving.

She picks at the greens on her plate

as if were toxic waste.

If she were to take a nibble

of the juicy steak,

hours would be spent

over the purple porcelain toilet.

I know how you lost

all that pink baby fat,

was it worth it?

The revision is cast in third person rather than second person, until the last three accusatory lines, which emphasizes and signals the speaker’s anger. Rather than working in prose sentences, Nyssa has used line breaks to emphasize key words and provide the poem with a shape. There are a number of subtle changes, like the shift from “your malnourished body” to the coldly objective “a malnourished body,” reflecting the extreme dieter’s loss of contact with her physical self. In both cases Nyssa has preserved what was good about her original draft, and made changes to add power to the poem’s effect.

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If any of the twenty exercises do not work for you, feel free to substitute one of the exercises below:

Exercise 21 - Place Poem.

Exercise 22 - Morning Poem.

Exercise 23 - Night Scene Poem.

Exercise 24 - Animal Poem.

Exercise 25 - Lie Poem.

Exercise 26 - Persona Poem.

Exercise 27 - Wish Poem.

Exercise 28 - Emotion Poem.

Exercise 29 - Old Neighborhood Poem.