In this introductory workshop, students will learn the basic vocabulary, forms, and craft elements for writing poetry; for example, metaphor, imagery, stanza, assonance, free verse, line, enjambment, lyric, and narrative. Students will read, listen to, discuss, and perform existing poems and use them as models and provocations for writing their own. In doing so, students will learn to see and hear what makes a poem a poem in order to create and help others create memorable work. The focus of the course will be learning a foundational understanding of various ways to create a line of poetry (sound, rhythm, image, e.g.). 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 consist of a poetry writing textbook supplemented by other examples of contemporary poetry. Students may be required to submit a portfolio of their work at the end of the semester.