Readings and Assignments for the Week of September 12-September 18, 2005

Tuesday, September 13, 2005:

Don't forget that class is cancelled today, as I'll be giving an out-of-town poetry reading. See you on Thursday!

Thursday, September 15, 2005:

Please read Chapter 2 (Verse) and Chapter 10 (Finding the Poem) in Writing Poems.

I'm listing the guidelines (see below) for your first "official" poetry assignment, which will be due for collection on Tuesday, September 20. Feel free to e-mail me if you have questions, and we'll also review the guidelines briefly in class at our next class meeting on Thursday.

Guidelines for Poetry Assignment #1: Image-Based Poem (Due Tuesday, September 20, 2005)

Write a poem that is saturated with concrete, sensual imagery.

Poem can be on any topic.

Poem must utilize at least five of the seven different types of imagery discussed in class.

Try to make the imagery as precise as possible, while also using imaginative word choice and methods of description to make the imagery lively and fresh.

Avoid cliché and hackneyed language. Avoid using abstractions. The poem should “show vs. tell” and use detailed, concrete language.

Remember that imagery doesn’t necessarily have to be “pretty,” and that poems don’t necessarily have to evoke beauty, although they can and some do.

Poem should be in free verse (i.e., please don’t attempt to make it rhyme).

Remember to give your poem a title when you are finished.

Please type/word process your poem and bring a hard copy to classon the due date. I'll write comments/suggestions for revision for you to work with, and this will be the first piece that you revise for submission in your creative writing portfolio. (With this in mind, please make sure to keep the first version/draft that I return to you with comments for the "before" part of your "before and after" portfolio submission.)

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Finally, here is this week's memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box, for blogs due on Sunday, September 18:

Describe a moment of pure joy. There are times in our lives when everything comes together in a chemical reaction of joy. It can be the siimplest thing: you are sitting outside on a sunny day drinking wine with your best friend, and he tells you a funny joke, just as a bird lands on a branch nearby to sing, and suddenly, your heart lifts, your spirit is up in the air, you feel ridiculous and glorious all at once. Once you've returned to earth, you realize that something has changed--you are not the person you were a moment before. Can you recall such a moment?

Since we didn't actually have time to complete an in-class exercise this week, don't forget that for this week's in-class exercise blog post, I asked you to post a rough draft/wor-in-progress of your assigned poem due Tuesday, September 20 (see guidelines above). And then, as usual, your third blog post for this week will consist of a process post (a 250-word disucssion of any of the course readings for the past week, poems/writings discussed in class, your thoughts on the writing rocess, etc.) Don't hesitate to e-mail me at lroripau@usd.edu if you have questions!