We’ll spend this workshop inside the rhythms and shapes of traditional verse. Starting with couplets, we’ll work our way into forms like quatrains, ballads, sonnets, villanelles, and pantoums, looking at how sound moves within and across lines, how pattern creates meaning, and how meaning can follow music.

Along the way, we’ll study how contemporary poets take these old forms and stretch them, sometimes bending them to the point of reinvention. This isn’t about becoming a New Formalist. It’s about learning the tools and techniques that still shape free verse from underneath. You’ll have space to try things out, pull them apart, and find what works in your own voice.

This workshop digs into the structure that lives inside free verse. Despite the name, free verse isn’t without form; it just hides it better. We’ll look closely at different kinds of poetic lines: long lines that stretch out, short ones that snap, medium lines that balance, and lines that shift without warning. We’ll also work with prose poems, where rhythm and image do the shaping. As we read and write each week, you’ll get a clearer sense of how a line works and how to make it carry meaning and voice. The goal isn’t just to write free verse, but to write it with intention—and to make the lines fully your own.

Step into a world of creative expression with our workshop dedicated to the art of figurative language in poetry, where each week is an exploration into the many forms of metaphorical expression. Each week, we examine different types of metaphors and how they are used in the works of classic and modern poets to express various ideas and emotions. Our exploration extends beyond conventional metaphors, encompassing an array of figurative language elements such as similes, epic similes, extended metaphors, personification, apostrophe, synecdoche, metonymy, and hyperbole. This workshop offers a comprehensive look at how these techniques transform ordinary language into extraordinary imagery and emotion. Whether you're a budding poet or an experienced writer, this workshop will enhance your understanding and application of these powerful literary tools.

Each week in this workshop, we’ll focus on a different sense: sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell. The goal is to evoke, not merely describe. You’ll work with the senses to see how they call up memory, bring detail into focus, and leave something behind. We’ll read poems that move beyond surface detail and look closely at how they do it. This is a space for slowing down, noticing more, and letting the body lead on the page.

This workshop is about returning to the poems you’ve already written. We’ll spend our time revisiting drafts, whether they still feel unfinished or you once thought they were done, and looking at what else they might become. Revision here isn’t just editing. It’s another form of making. We’ll try out different ways of reworking a poem, from small changes to complete reimagining. Our work will draw from Charles Finn and Kim Stafford's The Art of Revising Poetry: 21 U.S. Poets on their Drafts, Craft, and Process, along with insights from other poets who have shared how their work has changed over time. The goal is to look more closely at what’s already on the page and to stay open to what still might be found in each line.