POETICS OF RESPONSE

ENG 1007: The Art of Poetry

University of Denver

Fall 2020

In essence, all writing can be categorized as response. We respond in words to questions and problems, to documents, to others. To respond, of course, also means to react. We respond to circumstance, to crisis, to events, and so in essence we react. Poetry, in the abstract, is reaction in its richest short-spun and most truthful form. Poetry has a rich history of being heard. Poetry summarizes through metaphor and narrative, reactions and responses that might otherwise feel trite or long-winded, indefinite, forgettable. In this course we will examine poetry that responds directly to circumstance—to the crisis, to the document, to the artifact, to the circumstance, to the abstract, to the large-scale cultural expectation. We will examine collections by Julianna Spahr, Danez Smith, Layli Long Soldier, Jos Charles, Susan Briante, Tommy Pico, Mark Doty, and Gil Cuadros, as well as smaller bites of poetry from others responding directly.

We will analyze through close reading and via imitation (the most intimate means of understanding), in order to realize and recognize the power of the response poem, not withstanding its levity and brevity. We will interrogate the circumstantial and cultural spaces into which poets write and what value their products hold in both foresight and hindsight. Who benefits the most—reader or writer? What is the cultural shelf-life of poetic response and what does it this shelf-life depend upon? If a poem is a protest, how far can it reach? Students will compose short papers and response/imitation poems, give presentations and prompt classmates to imagine wildly, to coalesce, and to diverge.

Julianna Spahr’s The Winter the Wolf Came is a response to the 2011 Occupy Movement, Danez Smith’s Black Movie is a response to African American cinematic representation, Layli Long Soldier’s Whereas is a response to S.J Res 14, a failed congressional apology to Native Americans, Mark Doty’s My Alexandria is a response to the HIV/AIDS crisis, as is Gil Cuadros’ City of God (a hybrid collection of stories and poems), while Susan Briante’s The Market Wonders responds to the abstract entity that is the Dow Jones, Tommy Pico’s Nature Poem responds to sociocultural expectations of being Native American, queer and city dwelling, and Jos Charles’ feeld responds quasi-directly to the attributive mélange of language that defines being trans, being human, and being contemporary. These are of course, surface-level and abbreviated summaries. These collections tackle their tombs with ambition and we will untangle their wildness together in order to arrive at new definitions of what poetry is and what it brings to the world table.

Students will engage with the poetics of response through discussion, analysis, and imitation of the texts we read. The production of a lyric book review, a short critical comparison of two or more course texts, one creative body of work (an imitation), one partner/group project (a photo or video essay), one short research presentation (a conversation starter), and a kept journal of short critical and creative responses will allow for engagement with course texts. Brief reading quizzes will allow us to keep afoot with readings and be prepared for discussions, activities, and major assignments.

REQUIRED TEXTS:

The Market Wonders / Susan Briante

Publisher: Ahsahta Press; 1 edition (February 22, 2016)

ISBN-13: 978-1934103647

City of God / Gil Cuadros

Publisher: City Lights Publishers (January 1, 2001)

ISBN-13: 978-0872862951

feeld / Jos Charles

Publisher: Milkweed Editions (August 14, 2018)

ISBN-13: 978-1571315052

My Alexandria / Mark Doty

Publisher: University of Illinois Press; First Edition (January 1, 1993)

ISBN-13: 978-0252063176

Whereas / Layli Long Soldier

Publisher: Graywolf Press; Reprint edition (March 7, 2017)

ISBN-13: 978-1555977672

Nature Poem / Tommy Pico

Publisher: Tin House Books; 1 edition (May 9, 2017)

ISBN-13: 978-1941040638

Black Movie / Danez Smith

Publisher: Button Poetry (July 1, 2015)

ISBN-13: 978-1943735006

The Winter the Wolf Came / Julianna Spahr

Publisher: Commune Editions (August 11, 2015)

ISBN-13: 978-1934639177

POETICS OF THE BODY

ENG 1007: The Art of Poetry

University of Denver

Spring 2019

In this course we will focus on, analyze, and fall creatively into the poetics of the body and its many iterations in order to better understand the reaches of poetry as a form of willful expression.  We will explore fully formed and cohesive collections of poetry by emerging and established contemporary poets Jenny Boully, Susan Briante, Renee Gladman, Danez Smith, Beth Bachmann, Meg Freitag, Ariana Reines, and Emily Pettit.

As we examine interrogations and narratives of the human body, the animal body, the institutional/capitalist body, the imagined body, and the textual body, we will attempt to draw connections between the many types of bodies addressed. Alongside full collections of poetry, we will, on the daily, introduce into discussion single and small groups of poems by poets spanning from the eras of John Donne and Shakespeare through the emergence of the Beat Generation and Confessional Poetics, as well as the body-related poetics of other cultural spaces and countries, and other types of human constructs related to the body (visual art, dance, theatre, sport, medical science, technology, philosophy, etc).

Students will engage with the poetics of the body through discussion, analysis, and imitation of the texts we read. The production of a lyric book review, a short critical comparison of two or more course texts, one creative body of work (an imitation), one partner/group project (a photo or video essay), one short research presentation (a conversation starter), and a kept journal of short critical and creative responses will allow for engagement with course texts. Brief reading quizzes will allow us to keep afoot with readings and be prepared for discussions, activities, and major assignments.

TEXTS

Insert [Boy] (Danez Smith)

Publisher: YesYes Books (December 24, 2014)

ISBN-10: 1936919281

Temper (Beth Bachmann)

Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press; (August 28, 2009)

ISBN-10: 0822960400 

Calamities (Renee Gladman)

Wave Books; First Edition edition (September 6, 2016)

ISBN-10: 9781940696270

Edith (Meg Freitag)

Publisher: BOAAT Press (December 30, 2017)

ISBN-10: 0999492217

Goat in the Snow (Emily Pettit)

Publisher: Birds, LLC (January 3, 2012)

ISBN-10: 0982617763

The Cow (Ariana Reines)

Publisher: Fence Books (November 1, 2006)

ISBN-10: 0977106470

The Market Wonders (Susan Briante)

Publisher: Ahsahta Press (February 22, 2016)

ISBN-10: 1934103640

The Body (Jenny Boully)

Publisher: Essay Press (March 1, 2007)

ISBN-10: 9780979118920

THE RESISTANCE LYRIC

ENG 1000: Introduction to Creative Writing

University of Denver

Winter 2019

In this class we will focus primarily on student writing via workshops, presentations and discussions of original student work. Thematically, our primary focus will be human vulnerability and creative resistance as currency. We will explore creative texts that speak loudly into a variety of contemporary and current social and cultural concerns (e.g. identity, trauma, disability, illness, political triumphs and failures, gender, sexuality, loneliness, poverty, privilege, displacement, race/racism, etc) and writing that resists the status quo, upends assumptions and breaks open traditional systems of thought both aesthetically and contextually in order to better inform our own writing practices and goals.

Contemporary exemplar texts by Renee Gladman, Jenny Zhang, Tommy Pico, Miranda July, Anthony Bourdain, Jeffrey Eugenides, Natalie Eilbert, Danez Smith, James Baldwin, Claudia Rankine, Allen Ginsberg, and others will be examined through the lenses of craft and human concern, and we will draw context and guidance from Walter Benn Michael’s critical text The Beauty of a Social Problem alongside occasional more contained critical sources. Students will have the opportunity to write creatively into (and interrogate the boundaries of) poetry, fiction, autofiction/creative nonfiction, and hybrid genres at will.

A very small amount of research will be required to inform our creative reaches and will be allocated in kept journals and as a series of very short class presentations designed to propel fruitful discussions.

Required Texts:

• The Beauty of a Social Problem (Walter Benn Michaels)

  University of Chicago Press; 1st Edition (October 4, 2016) ISBN-10: 022642118X

• The Virgin Suicides (Jeffrey Eugenides)
  Picador; 1st Edition (April 27, 2009)
  ISBN-10: 9780312428815

• Calamities (Renee Gladman)
  Wave Books; 1st Edition (September 6, 2016) ISBN-10: 9781940696270

• Nature Poem (Tommy Pico)
  Tin House Books; 1st Edition (May 9, 2017) ISBN-10: 1941040632

• It Chooses You (Miranda July)
  McSweeney's; 1st Trade Paper Edition (July 31, 2012) ISBN-10: 1938073010

• Additional texts will be made available on Canvas and should be printed or brought to class digitally on the days we discuss them.

• On most days I will bring in one short text in hard copy to serve as conversation starter or as a guiding artifact for a writing exercise.