POETRY, WEEK 7, T.P., DUE 11/13/03

Thank you all for working through Poetry Workshop this week without me; I hope it was not too much fun. Note that Kip or Afton will return your poems from this week, and pass out this sheet of instructions for next week's assignment. I continue to be impressed by the overall quality of work I'm seeing, impressed with the increased use of imagery and metaphor to concentrate the emotional content of the poems, and impressed with the fact that people are taking chances, experimenting, trying out different "voiceings," looking for fresh ways to say what needs to be said.

This is the time for experimentation. Poets do, I think, develop distinct voices as they progress, but it's not a sudden epiphany, a revelation from the immortal Muse. Instead it involves years of grinding away, taking chances, seeing what works, making mistakes, learning from them. Some people were critical of themselves in their self‑evals for not having evolved their own voice yet this year, whoa. Give yourselves permission to be fluid, try new formulas, get wild; give yourself permission to be in process. I'm not interested in "finished poets;" I'm more interested in people willing to stretch their usual comfort zones and try out new music (metaphorically, that is.) That's why we have the class.

This week, I want you to read well into David Kirbys House of Blue Light. I think of Kirby as very playful, loose, funny, and, occasionally, surprisingly, profound. His style, which you'll see as you read him, often involves starting out with a specific incident or theme, then "riffing on it," improvising, letting himself connect multiple other images or incidents in ways that are sometimes indulgent and maddening, but as often feel completely right.

As an assignment, see if you can write a Kirby poem. Try out his long, conversational line structure, try starting with a well‑described incident or image, and riffing or leaping from that to something else, or many somethings else. Have fun with it, please; don't fret and get all tied up in knots. If you feel that you just can't get into it, you're free to write what you want, in whatever style you want. Next week we're going to do a breakup poem, and you can start on that if you want. AS USUAL, please keep the poems to a page (difficult if you're David Kirby!) and have it ready for Workshop next Thursday; you can bring multiple copies if you want; as you all know by now, I'm fond of working from just the "read" versions, but if you want your peer reviewers to read along with you, bring along enough copies. Good luck; keep grinding.