Three Poems a Week:

Creative Writing in the Computer Classroom

With Andy Jones

Winter, 2012

Format | Topic Outline / Syllabus | Grading

Course Outline & Goals:
Albert Einstein once said that “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” This poetry workshop will guide the participants in our seminar through a series of take-home and in-class writing assignments that will remind you of your intuition, individuality and creativity. Using examples from books, handouts, and websites, I will challenge you to write ambitious and honest poems. Class participants will focus on avoiding clichés, surprising the reader, and revealing the fresh and stimulating observations and reflections of a bright poet and creative thinker.

We will meet and write in a computer classroom so that we can take full advantage of the myriad anthologies and other resources available on the web. As most creative professionals showcase their work on the web, we may also virtually tour museums, architectural marvels and concert halls, discovering in these sites inspiration for both the tenor and vehicles of our poems. We will also use the web to research others’ approach to assignments like ours, and learn from the models that we find there.

One advantage of conducting this research will be our discovery of local “creative performances,” three of which you will attend and review with a two-page essay each; two of these performances will be poetry readings, while the other may include a concert, a stand-up comedy performance, a play, an art show opening, etc. Ask me about other options.

For this course you will also share your creations with real-world audiences. In addition to sharing one or more poems on the radio and at open mics around town, each of you will submit three or more poems to an editor of an actual literary journal to be considered for publication. If necessary, I will provide envelopes, addresses and postage to ensure that all of you will send your work out for review.

Your assigned text will be your choice of any substantive anthology of 20th or 21st century poetry. You are encouraged to pick up such an anthology from Logos Books, The Avid Reader (both on 2nd Street in Davis), or some other independent bookstore.