We’re constantly seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching things in the world…and we inevitably compare what we sense with other things. These acts of comparison—seeing one thing as or like another—are at the heart of poetic making. On Day 1 we’ll enjoy reading model poems and try fun exercises that highlight how metaphor helps working minds naturally (and evocatively) move from sensory perception into realms of thinking and feeling. On Day 2 we'll explore how metaphor sustains different poetic forms—in particular, the sonnet, the pastoral, and the elegy—and consider figurative strategies that 1) liberate formal parameters, 2) sustain and challenge our ideas of place, and 3) generate, out of absence or the threat of loss, vivid and satisfying poems. An excellent course for poets of all levels and for fiction writers who want to explore the power of metaphor.

In this workshop, we will generate new writing through exercises and assignments.