This course description is probably not a poem. But why not? I’ve called myself a poet, and I’m crafting this as carefully, intentionally, and thoughtfully as I can manage. Is it just the lack of line breaks? But what about prose poems? Does this course description need a more uniform meter? Rhyme? Flights of figurative language and obscure allusions? Do all poems even know that they’re poems? Am I selling this course description’s poetic potential short?

So let’s ask ourselves throughout the semester. What is a poem? What does or what must or what can’t that literary and linguistic category called poetry include? How does poetry work—and to what extent does a poem’s function even matter? Why does it work? What happens when it works? (And what happens when it doesn’t?) In how many various ways does a poem intersect, reflect, or affect the world outside it? Come explore these questions (among others), especially with regard to contemporary poetry, even more especially with regard to recent texts written by those Fall 2021 Zell Visiting Writers who identify as poets.

All students are welcome! No prior knowledge of poetry or poetics required.