In this introductory workshop, students will learn the basic vocabulary, forms, and craft elements for writing poetry. Together we’ll consider what makes a poem a poem by exploring the possibilities for creating meaning through imagery, metaphor, sound, line, form, and persona. Students will read, listen to, and discuss existing poems and use them as models and provocations for writing their own. This course will include guided writing exercises, for which students will receive feedback from the instructor, and move toward a peer workshop, in which students deliver constructive criticism of one another’s work with the instructor as facilitator and guide. Assigned readings for the course will be provided by the instructors and will consist of poems from a variety of poets and time periods.