READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEK OF JANUARY 30 – FEBRUARY 5, 2006:

Tuesday, January 31, 23006:

Please read Chapter 8 (Metaphor) in Writing Poems, as well as Chapter 9 (Is and Is Not: Comparison) in Writing Fiction.

Thursday, February 2, 2006 :

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

Next, here is your Memoir Prompt for this coming week for blogs due on Sunday, February 5, by midnight:

Describe an event in your life when you experienced a very particular and intense assault on your sense of touch. For example, have you ever been severely burned, or caught in the cold? Have you had invasive surgery or the best massage in the world? Describe those sensations with as vivid a vocabulary as you can manage. Do you notice how the number of words we have to describe feeling, especially pain, is very limited? How can you find other ways to approximate the sense of touch?

And finally, I'm listing the guidelines (see below) for your first "official" poetry assignment, which will be due for collection on Tuesday, February 7.

Guidelines for Poetry Assignment #1: Image-Based Poem (Due Tuesday, February 7, 2006:

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 class on 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.)