Poetry_Heat

Sestinas !

One of my favorite forms, the sestina. The students really got a lot out of this assignment, I heard, as we did round robin on their writing process and experience. I will be posting some of them here for the next week. Here is one from James Yeager, where he had wittily lined it out with justified right margin, so to emphasize--really, to problematize--the obsessive-compulsive, relentless intertwhining (to coin a term) of end words. Unfortunately, I can't reproduce that same counterbalancing effect to the form here en-blog. The poem is nonetheless a strong one for many other reasons.
Thank you, James!

Sounding Fury
by James Yeager

I finished reading Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury,
and placed it next to the notebook in my sack,
headed out the door ruminating on its lack of sense,
suddenly realizing its randomness is everyday life.
A printed never-ending consciousness stream of TV images,
as the ones played out in front of me while I watch.

Engrossed by events I lose track and look at my watch.
Seeing the time, late to work, I imagine supervisory fury
as I rush in, still distracted by images
of people, ideas and faces pulling from bottles of sack.
I stop in my cubicle, claustrophobic cell of office life,
My desk staring blankly, appealing to logical non sense.

I stare at its gaping face and sense
its presence staring back like a guard on watch
over me because I’m a felon doing life
for smashing a skull in ravenous fury
over putting the eggs under the milk in the sack.
Remembering reality, quickly I stop these images.

I leave at once and return to the reverie images
of those all around me who sense
nothing wrong with the world dressed in sack
cloth. Begin to ponder too much about those I watch
hurting, wishing to all the fates that I were a Fury
seeking vengeance for this wronged life.

Why is it we wrestle with life only to die? Life
itself cannot be the respondent for our images
of Death and Decay ravaging with such fury
our collectively deluded sense
of balance. It can only sit there, a watch
dog of destiny, speaking only to give one the sack.

These postulations haunt ‘til I’m ready to sack
out, and continue with me every day of my life.
It is such irony to spend life focusing on death. Watch
and you’ll see yourself in these images—
the streaming video feed that will dull every sense
until the vacuum is left in a violent fury.

I watch the flickering images
go by, and holding the sack, I pillage life—
swallow the injustice and hear my own sense of burning fury.
~~~copyright of James Yeager~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Syllabus: Engl. 4330-001--Creative Writing: Poetry Seminar

Syllabus: Engl. 4330--Creative Writing Seminar: Poetry--Spring 2004 M/W 1:00-2:30 309 PH

Instructor: Chris Murray Phone: 817.272.2517 email: cmurray@uta.edu
Office: 413 Central Library, next to UTA Writing Center
Office Hours: M 11:30-12:30 Th 3-5 and by appointment

Required Textbooks:

1. Baptista, Josely Vianna, *On the Shining Screen of the Eyelids.* Chris Daniels, transl. Manifest Press, 2003 ISBN: 0-9673885-6-2
2.Tabios, Eileen R., *Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole.* Marsh Hawk Press, 2002. ISBN: 0-9713332-8-9
3. Johnson, Kent and Papaditsas, Alexandra, *The Miseries of Poetry: Traductions from the Greek.* Skanky Possum Press, 2003. ISBN: N/A
4. Prevallet, Kristen, *Scratch Sides: Poetry, Documentation, and Image-Text Projects. * Skanky Possum, 2002. ISBN: 0-9703952-3-X
5. Owens, Rochelle, *Luca: Discourse on Life and Death. * Junction Press, 2001. ISBN: 1-881523-12-8
6. Bernstein, Charles, *Let's Just Say.* Tucson AZ, Chax Press, 2003 ISBN: N/A
7. Schwabsky, Barry. *Opera: Poems 1981-2002.* Meritage Press, 2003.
8. Ai. Vice. *Norton, 1999.* ISBN: 0-393-32018-9
9. Turco, Lewis. *Book of Forms: a Handbook of Poetics. * University Press of New England, 1986. ISBN: 0-87451-381-2
10.Jonas, Stephen, *Selected Poems.* Talisman House Publishers, 1994. ISBN: 1-883689-06-6
11.Vincent, Stephen, *Walking.* Junction Press, 1994. ISBN: 1-881523-05-5
12. Rimbaud, Arthur, *A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat.* Louise Varese, translator. New Directions, 1961. ISBN: 0-8112-0185-6
13. Smith, Dale, *American Rambler. *Thorp Springs. 2000. ISBN: 0-914476-00-9
14. Silliman, Ron, *N/O* adobe reader ebook, 2002.

Course Description and Goals:
In this course, we will study and write poetry from several contemporary perspectives. The goal is two-fold: first, to read and study the topics and technical innovations of poetry today, and then to write and revise poems with the result of compiling an original chapbook-sized manuscript.

Requirements (5) for Successful Completion of the Course:
1. Active participation (30% of total course grade): the classroom is understood as a community where everyone has a presence and contributes--by regular, prompt attendance, by responding during class discussion, by participating and contributing feedback in workshops.

2. Weekly Assignments (40% of grade): Readings and writings. All writing assignments are to be typed or wordprocessed. Students are responsible for the reading assignment of one book per week. Students will be accountable for and demonstrate understanding of the readings through class discussion, and summary /responses in writing (one page, one-sided, double spaced, ½ summary and ½ response) for each book. Additionally, students will be assigned one orignal poem to write per week.

3. Course Poetry Project (30 %): In addition to the weekly reading and writing assignments, students will work throughout the semester on an original project of their poems.

4. Portfolio: all weekly assignments (sum/resps, and poems), as well as the course project will be kept in a course portfolio. Read Carefully and Follow this to the letter, please: **by portfolio is meant only a simple, least expensive, non-glossy, double pocket folder, no brads, costs less than a dollar in most places.** One side contains the project, the other side contains weekly assignment. At midsemester, students will turn these in for grading and sign up to conference with me for 15 minutes about the work. Revision can go on all semester for all work, until the final week, when portfolios will be handed in again for final grades. They can be mailed to you over break if you supply an envelope with sufficient postage, or you can pick them up by making an appointment with me.

5. Writing Center Visit: students are required to visit the Writing Center for at least one tutoring session during the semester, in order to get feedback over any topic they choose. It is hoped, however, that students will make a regular habit of going for feedback from the Center’s excellent and caring tutors.

Policies--Attendance, Grading, Dropping the Course, & etc.:
Tardiness disrupts class--please be prompt. As for absences, missing more than 3 classes (excused officially or not) will cause the student’s overall course grade to be lowered by 1 letter grade. Missing work in either the participation requirements, assigned writings, or the course project (such as poem draft copies to be included in portfolio), earns a grade of zero for that day, week, or specific assignment. As for dropping the course, if you want to drop the course, you must initiate it yourself.

Grading Criteria:
Active Participation in class work and discussion: 30%
Weekly Informal Writings and Quizzes: 40%
Course Project: 30%

Grading Scale:
A=91-100 B=81-90 C=71-80 D=61-70 F=0-60

Appropriate Discourse in the Classroom:
While working together on a regular basis, the classroom becomes a close community. We are diverse in heritage and belief, eclectic in ideas. Learning depends here on sharing: shared discourse in many forms--reading, writing, discussion, peer and instructor feedback. Only with tolerance and respect for others’ differences, beliefs, ideas, can we learn individually and together. At all times during the course, then, remember to be mindful of this fundamental basis for intelligent community--a community especially concerned with learning together and from one another.

Please note:
Creative writing often attempts to reflect circumstances, objects, and characters, taken from everyday life in all possible social situations. Realistic dialogue often uses language some may find strong or offensive; many symbols or items have connotations and associations that may be taken as violent or unpleasant by some. Yet these matters of language use fall completely within the parameters of such a course of study, so will not be censored. On the other hand,* gratuitous * violence in symbol, image, or language use, is not acceptable as falling under the parameters of what is meant as * creative * but rather as immature, so not suitable for college course work in creative writing.

Academic Honesty:
Academic honesty is a necessary basis for learning about and sharing ideas. “Academic dishonesty is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated. Anyone involved in academic dishonesty will be disciplined in accordance with UTA regulations. Discipline may include suspension or expulsion from the university. ‘Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, the submission for credit of any work or materials that are attributable in whole or in part to another person, taking an examination for another person, any act designed to give unfair advantage to a student or the attempt to commit such acts.’ (Regents’ Rules and Regulations, Part One, Chapter VI, Section 3, Subsection 3.2., Subdivision 3.22).” --quoted from UTA syllabus guidelines.

Students with Disabilities:
“If you are a student who requires accommodations in compliance with the ADA, please consult with me at the beginning of the semester. As a faculty member,I am required by law to provide ‘reasonable accommodation’ to students with disabilities, so as not to discriminate on the basis of that disability. Your responsibility is to inform me of the disability at the beginning of the semester and provide me with documentation authorizing the specific accommodation. Student services at UTA inclue the Office of Students with Disabilities (located in the lower level of the University Center) which is responsible for verifying and implementing accommodations to ensure equal opportunity in all programs and activities.”--quoted from UTA syllabus guidelines.

Student Support Services:
UTA has many student success programs to help you. Included are programs in learning assistance, developmental education, advising and mentoring, admission and transition, as well as federally funded programs. “Students requiring assistance academically, personally, or socially should contact the Office of Student Success Programs at 817-272-6107 for more information and appropriate referrals.”--quoted from the UTA syllabus guidelines.

Schedule (Subject to Minor Variation & Changes)

Note: read approximately one book per week, write a summary/response and a poem assignment.

(Week )1: Jan 19-21 Holiday on 19th. 12st is course introduction. Survey Turco. Write a sonnet (be sure to have written the summary/response to Turco, also).

2: Jan 26-28: Discuss Turco. Workshop sonnets. Next reading: Ai. Next writing: quantitative syllabics, Turco, p. 13: Write a poem of 30 lines in quantitative syllabics.

3: Feb 2-4 reading Ai. poem TBA

4: Feb 9-11 reading Vincent. poem TBA

5: Feb 16-18 reading Tabios. poem TBA

6: Feb 23-25 reading Schwabsky. poem TBA

7: Mar 1-3 Bernstein. poem TBA

8: Mar 8-10 Rimbaud. poem TBA. Portfolio Conferences

9: Mar 15-17 (Let’s just say WE GOT Spring Break : ) Have fun!

10: Mar 22-24 Owens. poem TBA. Portfolio Conferences

11: Mar 29-31 Silliman. poem TBA

12: Apr 5-7Prevallet. poem TBA

13: Apr 12-14 Jonas. poem TBA

14: Apr 19-21 Johnson. poem TBA

15: Apr 22-24 Smith. poem TBA

16: Apr 27-28: Baptista. poem TBA

17: May 3-5 No Class: portfolio

Book List for Engl. 4330-001, Spring 2004

Students have been inquiring about my course and the booklist for next semester--spring 04. I decided the quickest way for them to get this booklist is just to refer them to the blog (since I have no other completed website yet). Thus, this post.

I'm teaching Engl. 4330, senior seminar in poetry writing. In my courses, writing also means lots of reading. I am planning a book per week, with some overlap or splitting, depending on the week and topics, of course. And I am still looking into 2 more selections. But here is the book list, so far--though the order of items on this list indicates nothing but how I randomly grabbed from the pile (with the exception of Ron's e-book, of course) here beside me to type things onto this screen:

1. Baptista, Josely Vianna, *On the Shining Screen of the Eyelids.* Chris Daniels, transl. Manifest Press, 2003 ISBN: 0-9673885-6-2

2. Tabios, Eileen R., *Reproductions of the Empty Flagpole.* Marsh Hawk Press, 2002. ISBN: 0-9713332-8-9

3. Johnson, Kent and Papaditsas, Alexandra, *The Miseries of Poetry: Traductions from the Greek.* Skanky Possum Press, 2003. ISBN: N/A

4. Prevallet, Kristen, *Scratch Sides: Poetry, Documentation, and Image-Text Projects. * Skanky Possum, 2002. ISBN: 0-9703952-3-X

5. Owens, Rochelle, *Luca: Discourse on Life and Death. * Junction Press, 2001. ISBN: 1-881523-12-8

6. Bernstein, Charles, *Let's Just Say.* Tucson AZ, Chax Press, 2003 ISBN: N/A

7. Schwabsky, Barry. *Opera: Poems 1981-2002.* Meritage Press, 2003.

8. Ai. Vice. *Norton, 1999.* ISBN: 0-393-32018-9

9. Turco, Lewis. *Book of Forms: a Handbook of Poetics. * University Press of New England, 1986. ISBN: 0-87451-381-2

10. Jonas, Stephen, *Selected Poems.* Talisman House Publishers, 1994. ISBN: 1-883689-06-6

11. Vincent, Stephen, *Walking.* Junction Press, 1994. ISBN: 1-881523-05-5

12. Rimbaud, Arthur, *A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat.* Louise Varese, translator. New Directions, 1961. ISBN: 0-8112-0185-6

13. Smith, Dale, *American Rambler. *Thorp Springs. 2000. ISBN: 0-914476-00-9

14. Silliman, Ron, *N/O* adobe reader ebook, 2002.

Welcome to UTA Engl. 4330: Seminar in Poetry Writing

Welcome!
My textbook list is right above this initial post.