Introduction
This course will investigate the explosively innovative and radically exploratory poetries of  North American from the past 50 years. The emphasis will be on poetry that works in nontraditional and unconventional ways to create new music and new meanings.

Works will be presented from some well-known poets but there will be greater attention to a range of lesser known poets and younger poets now actively working to delight, inform, redress, lament, extol, oppose, renew, rhapsodize, imagine, foment . . .

Books by several visiting poets reading in the "Wednesdays at Four Plus" series will also be the focus of discussion.

The "Wednesdays at 4" poetry series is an integral part of the class: the readings are scheduled to make it possible to attend during class time and a number of this Spring's visiting poets will meet with the workshop before their readings. There will be readings every week of the semester after the first two weeks.  Readings start at 4pm the Screening Room of the main floor of the Center for the Arts. The class will take a brief break at 3:40 on the days of the reading and reassemble at the CFA at 4pm.  The readings will be over at about 5pm for single readers, about 5:20 for double readings, though you are welcome to stick around and chat after the event.

This "reading workshop" combines aspects of a literature class with some of the formats of an experimental creative writing class.

The workshop is less concerned with analysis or explanation of individual poems than with finding ways to intensify the experience of poetry, of the poetic, through a consideration of how the different styles and structures and forms of contemporary poetry can affect the way we see and understand the world.  No previous experience with poetry is necessary.  More important is a willingness to consider the implausible, to try out alternative ways of thinking, to listen to the way language sounds before trying to figure out what it means, to lose yourself in a flurry of syllables and regain your bearings in dimensions otherwise imagined as out-of-reach.

The basic requirement for the workshop is a weekly response to the assigned readings  usually a notebook entry or writing experiment.  These responses and experiments are meant to encourage interaction with the poems and also serve as a record of your reading.  The responses and experiments will form the basis of workshop discussions, and participants will present some their experiments and poems during class.

The readings for this workshop are extensive and cannot all be discussed in class in any detail.  The concept is for you to saturate yourself in 20th-century poetry. If you have specific questions, please bring these up in class or on the listserve.

Requirements
The basic requirement for the class is a weekly response to the assigned readings and to the Wednesday at 4 event  usually a notebook or journal entry, imitation, performance, or experiment. Please DATE each response (and number 2 to 14 according to syllabus). And at the beginning of each response, ask a question about some aspect of the reading that can be used as part of the class discussion. Be sure to include one or two specific questions for each of visiting poets.

Be sure to include your response to the Wednesday at 4 reading and class visit in your response on the week following the reading/visit. Use the listserv to share your responses or respond to others (see below).

These responses are open-ended and can be in whatever form you choose  they are meant to encourage interaction with the poems and also serve as a record of your reading. The responses will form the basis of workshop discussions.  But try to be as detailed as you can and try to respond to the full range of the week's reading. Attached to this syllabus is a list providing a variety of writing experiments (something like laboratory work!) aimed at getting inside the styles of the various poets studied. Try applying these experiments to the poems you are assigned each week.

A good way to fulfill this requirement is to keep a journal noting responses, comments, opinions of readings, lectures, class discussion, and poetry readings. The journal  or notebook is an open form in which you can feel free to record your impressions in an informal manner. A good guideline for length is at least two or three (double-space, typed) pages each week. It's best to keep an actual diary or notebook, dating each entry, typing up the material you wish to submit each week.  (Typing is greatly preferred though in a pinch a clearly handwritten response is okay.)

Use the journal to document what you are reading  both assigned and unassigned reading. What do you think of the poem? Give as much detail as you can as to why you feel the way you do. What does the poem sound like, what does it remind you of? Quote specific lines or phrases that seem relevant. Being specific is the hardest part of this assignment and I almost always request descriptions of the form and style of the different poems: which can be as simple as a description of the visual shape of the poem, its length, the type of lines (long, short, metrical, enjambed), the sort of style or rhetoric or vocabulary (unusual, common, pastoral, urban, urbane, fast-paced, slow-moving, pictorial, bombastic, introspective, descriptive, narrative, fragmentary, etc.).
The point is not for you to analyze or explain the poem but rather to try to react to it.

While you may approach this assignment is any way you like, if you feel stumped about what to write, answer any or all of these questions:

Of the poems read for this week, which is your favorite? Why? Which is the best. Why? Are favorite and best the same? Rank the poems in your order of preference.
Of the poems read for this week, which did you like least?  Why?
Of the poems read for this week, which is the worst. Why? What are your criteria for deciding the quality of poem. Can poems that you don't like or understand still be good poems?
Describe the performance style of the reader: pace, theatrical style, timbre or tone of voice, rhythmic qualities of the reading, humorous/dry/emotional/impersonal, etc.
Rank all the readers so far in order of preference: who did the best reading, whose poems did you think were the best?How did hearing the reading compare to reading the work on the page (if you read the work on the page)?
Pick one poem. Describe its features: how many lines does it have, how many words or syllables are in each line, how many stanzas? What kind of vocabulary does the poem use? What kind of diction or syntax is used? What is the mood of the poem? What is the most unusual feature of the poem? What does the poem sound like  give some examples of sound patterns in the poem.
Do you see anything that all the poems assigned for this week have in common.
How does the set of poems for this week differ from the poems from last week?
What issues of poetics  how a poem means or how it is made  are brought up by the readings.  What were some of the issues raised along this line in last week's class discussion?
[Try this one sometime after midsemester]  Looking back on your previous responses, have you changed your opinions about any poems.  How?

It is not necessary, or practical, for you to comment on every assigned poem.  But if you choose to focus on one poet or poem, or to do the experiments, preface your response with a very quick take on the reading overall (likes/dislikes, general features, etc.) in addition to your comment on the Wednesday at Four reading.

Try imitating the style of the poem, or parodying it.  Use the experiments list!
To become more involved with the writing, try typing out some of the poems and include your reactions to that process.  Read poems aloud to friends, relatives, or whomever, and report on your and their reactions.  Write poems in response to the poems.
Keep a running account of your reaction to the class as whole  what's working, what's interesting, what's not.  After each class, write a paragraph describing your reactions to the discussions that took place.
Include the contexts in which you are reading or writing in your notebook.  What's your mood, what's on your mind.  How do the poems affect or interact with that, if at all.
Include, if you like, "diary" material about your life or general or poetic observations, interspersed with comments about the readings.  Don't be afraid to go off on tangents, associated thoughts.  Include shopping lists, dreams, travel notes, etc.

In addition to the general responses discussed above, your notebooks must include these five elements: 
1.  Write something in response to each of the Wednesday poetry readings or events: how was the performance of the poems, what did you think of the poems. Compare each new reading with the previous ones.
2.  For the weeks when a poet is visiting the class: write two questions for her or him: put these questions at the top of your response.
3.  Write about some poems not discussed in class.
4.  Pick one poem from the readings and keep a running commentary on it  that is, write about this same poems five or six times over the course of the term.
5.  At least once in the semester, compare or contrast a poem by two different authors and two by the same author (from the assigned readings). This should be at least several pages long. Of course, you may wish to do this several times in the course of the term.
 

Each week you should send out part of your week's writing to the listserve created just for this reading workshop or respond to other people's posts. First, you must subscribe to the listserve. To do this send an email message to:  listserv@listserv.buffalo.edu
the message should say only:
sub wreading-L
after you have subscribed, send all posts to: wreadingL@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu
 

Poetry on the Web
Check out the Poetics Program's own web site, the Electronic Poetry Center
http://epc.buffalo.edu
Reading and listening assignments from the EPC are listed in the syllabus. When an author is listed as at the EPC, go to "author" section and then to the specific poet. LINEbreak radio programs are in RealAudio and can be accessed from the LINEbreak link on the EPC home page or usually from the poet's author page.
A calendar of the Wednesday at Four Plus series is at the EPC, with a link on the home page.
For additional information on many of the poets, you can use the electronic version of Contemporary Authors, available via Bison's e-resources page.

Required Books at Talking Leaves:
Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology, ed. Paul Hoover
Live at the Ear (CD)
Books of visiting poets:
Feb. 9: Christian Bök, Crystallography
Feb. 16: Jorie Graham: The Dream of the Unified Field : Selected Poems 1974-1994
March 15: Ron Silliman: (r)
April 26: Clark Coolidge Sound As Thought: Poems 1982-1984

Syllabus

1. (Jan. 19): Introduction

2. (Jan. 26): Postmodern American Poetry (PAMP): "Introduction" to p. 68 plus "Poetics" pp. 613-628
EPC: Cage and Guest (including LINEbreak interview); Duncan reading "My Mother Would Be a Falcroness": http://www.poets.org/au/rdunca01.ram

3. (Feb. 2): PAMP 68-142, "Poetics": 628-637
EPC: Ginsberg, O'Hara, Mac Low (including LINEbreak interview), and Spicer
Kerouac http://www.charm.net/~brooklyn/People/JackKerouac.html
Kerouac sound clips (.au): http://www-hsc.usc.edu/~gallaher/k_speaks/kerouacspeaks.html

4. (Feb. 9): Christian Bök class visit and reading
Bok, Crystallography
Explore Ubuweb: http://www.ubuweb.com
Also, this week and for Feb. 23, check out the EPC e-poetry links: http://epc.buffalo.edu/e-poetry

5. (Feb. 16): Jorie Graham class visit and reading
Graham: The Dream of the Unified Field

6. (Feb. 23): John Cayley (reading only: no class visit)
Cayley: start with home page: http://www.shadoof.net
then go to these works: http://www.shadoof.net/in/oisleand.html (be sure to click on the horizontal lines on the left of each verse line) and
http://www.heelstone.com/meridian/cayley.html and click on the title at top "noth'rs"
*
PAMP: 143-220, "Poetics" 637-640
EPC: Creeley, including LINEbreak interviews; plus EPC pages for Ashbery and Eigner, plus Ashbery sound file at http://www.poets.org/LIT/poem/jashbe02.htm

7. (March 1): Aaron Williamson class visit and reading
"Hearing Things" at http://www.ruskin-sch.ox.ac.uk/lab/workprac/aaron/index.html
plus handouts
PAMP: 221-300, Poetics: 640-645
EPC: Rothenberg (including LINEbreak), Baraka, Berrigan, Ceravallo

(March 8): spring break

8. (March 15): Ron Silliman class visit and reading
Silliman: (r)
Silliman at EPC, including LINEbreak interview
Silliman in PMAP: 489-496, Poetics: 660-663

9. (March 22): Vincent Czyz (reading only: no class visit)
Live at the Ear CD, first 6 tracks
PAMP: 301-384, Poetics: 646-652
EPC: Howe (including LINEbreak interview) and Grenier.

10. (March 29): Mark Turner (reading only: no class visit)
Mark Turner articles on home page: http://www.wam.umd.edu/~mturn/
Live at the Ear CD, tracks 7 to 13
PAMP: 385-451, Poetics 653-658
EPC: Hejinian, including LINEbreak interview

11. (April 5): Karen Alcalay-Gut & Jennifer Ley reading; Alcalay-Gut class visit
PAMP: 451-524 (except Silliman); Poetics: 658-660 (Mayer), 663-668 (Mackey)
EPC: Notley, Mayer, Mackey.
As an introduction to hypertext, my essay: "An Mosaic for Convergence": http://www.altx.com/ebr/ebr6/ebr6.htm
Jennifer Ley: her home page -- http://www.heelstone.com/resume/resume.html  has links to several of her online works and also her magazine -- http://www.heelstone.com/meridian/, in which I particularly recommend you read her essay at: http://www.heelstone.com/meridian/leyarticle.html
Karen Alcalay:
PDF file of a book: http://whistle.org/Books/kagut.pdf
http://alsopreview.com/karengut.html
http://www.scriberazone.co.uk/Collections/Solitaire/welcome.htm
http://www.azureweb.demon.co.uk/oct99/karen.html
http://www.womenwriters.net/editorials/kag.htm

12. (April 12): Reina Maria Rodriguez (reading only: no class visit)
PAMP: 524-609; Poetics: 668-678
EPC: Andrews and Scalapino (including LINEbreak interviews)

13. (April 19): Tony Conrad (screening of films only: no class visit)
Early Coolidge: Research project. Read one of Coolidge's early books at the Poetry Collection, 420 Capen Hall: The Maintains, Poloroid, Ing, Space, Flag Flutter

14. (April 26): Clark Coolidge reading and class visit
Coolidge, Sound as Thought
 

CREATIVE READING EXPERIMENTS


1.Homolinguistic translation: Take a poem and translate it "English to English" by substituting word for word, phrase for phrase, line for line, or "free" translation as response to each phrase or sentence.

2.Homophonic translation: Take a poem in a foreign language that you can pronounce but not necessarily understand and translate the sound of the poem into English (i.e., French "blanc" to blank or "toute" to toot).  (Cf.: Louis and Celia Zukofsky's Catullus.) (Rewrite to suit?)

3.Lexical translation:  Take a poem in a foreign language that you can pronounce but not necessarily understand and translate it word for word with the help of a bilingual dictionary.  (Rewrite to suit?)

4.Acrostic chance: Use title of book as acrostic key phrase.  For each letter of key phrase go to page number in book that corresponds (a=1, z=26) and copy as first line of poem from the first word that begins with that letter to end of line or sentence.  Continue through all key letters, leaving stanza breaks to mark each new key word.  (Cf.: Jackson Mac Low's Stanzas for Iris Lezak.)  Variations include using author's name as code for reading through her or his work, using your own or friend's name, picking different kinds of books for this process, devising alternative acrostic procedures.

5.Tzara's hat: Pick a series of words or lines from the reading. Put in the hat. Poem is made according to the order in which it is randomly pulled from hat

6.(Solo: Burroughss foldin:  Take two different pages of poetry and cut the pages in half vertically.  Paste the mismatched pages together.  (Cf.: William Burroughs's The Third Mind.)

7.Take a poem and cut it somewhere in the middle, then recombine with the beginning part following the ending part.

8.General cutups:  Write a poem composed entirely of phrases lifted from the readings.

9. Cento: Write a collage made up of fulllines of selected source poems.

10. Substitution (1): "Mad libs."  Take a poem  and put blanks in place of three or four words in each line, noting the part of speech under each blank.  Fill in the blanks being sure not to recall the original context.

11. Substitution (2): "7 up or down."  Take a poem and substitute another word for every noun, adjective, adverb, and verb; determine the substitute word by looking up the index word in the dictionary and going 7 up or down, or one more, until you get a syntactically suitable replacement.  (Cf.: Clark Coolidge and Larry Fagin, On the Pumice of Morons.)

12.Substitution (3): "Find and replace." Systematically replace one word in a source text with another word or string of words.  Perform this operation serially with the same source text, increasing the number of words in the replace string.

13.Serial sentences:  Select one sentence each from a variety of source texts.  Add sentences of your own composition.  Combine into one paragraph, reordering to produce the most interesting results.

14. Alphabet poems: Using the work of one author as source, make up a poem of 26 words so that each word begins with the next letter of the alphabet.  Write another alphabet poem but scramble the letter order.

15.Imitation:  Write a poem in the style of each of a dozen poets who you like and dislike.  Try to make it as close to a forgery of an "unknown" poem of the author as possible.

16.Backwards: Reverse or alter the line sequence of a poem.  Reverse the word order.  Rather than reverse, scramble.

17.Erasure: Take a poem and crossout most of the words on each poem, retype what remains as your poem.  (Cf.: Ronald Johnson's RADI  OS from Milton.)

18.Elimination: Cut out the second half of sentences or lines.

19. Negation/Opposites: Negate every phrase or sentence in the poem or in some way substitute opposite words for selected words in the source text: "I went to the beach" becomes "I went to the office"; "I got up" becomes "She sat down"; "I will" become "I will note", etc.