(A JOSEPH CORNELL MEMORY BOX)
750 POETRY WORKSHOP FALL 2015
SANDRA ALCOSSER
Classroom: SSW-2514
Wednesday class :3:30-6:10
Office: AL 219
Hours: Wednesdays by appointment
1alcosser@gmail.com
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How does the mind remember? How can a collection of cells encapsulate our past?
Plato suggested that memory is like an aviary inside your head with all these birds flying around, such that
you might reach in for a ringdove and accidentally pull out a turtledove instead, wrote David Wilson,
MacArthur Fellow, founder of Venice Boulevard Museum of Jurassic Technology . By
studying the architecture of memory, from palace to aviary, cathedral to cigar box, we will
discover how it shapeshifts into poems. Poets and prose writers will read and respond to
writings and prompts about memory from across cultures and centuries, as well as to the
work of individuals in the seminar. The poetry and prose created by each participant will be
the primary focus. Each person will have 6 poems discussed in 6 workshops during the
semester. Each poem will then be revised as needed for a culminating on-line portfolio due
November 25th. We’ll meet individually in conferences throughout the semester to discuss
your writing.
Please arrive early for each workshop, sign in and make yourself comfortable. Class will
begin promptly at 3:30 , often with a lecture, or group conversation, and writing prompt (see
schedule below). At 4:30, we will take a ten-minute break, and begin workshop promptly at
4:40, allowing 8 minutes for each poem to be read and discussed. Come prepared, having
read all ten or eleven poems and responded on the page. Sign your name at the bottom of
your response.
BY POPULAR DEMAND--THE DAILIES !
Many poets write almost an entire first manuscript in one semester by practicing The Dailies.
W.S. Merwin learned this daily practice from Ezra Pound who said to Merwin: if you want to
be a poet you have to take it seriously. You have to work on it the way you would work on anything else and
you have to do it every day. He said you should write about 75 lines every day. You know, Pound was a
great one for laying down the law about how you did anything. And he said, you don't really have anything to
write about in 75 lines a day. He said you don't really have anything to write about. He said, at the age of
18, you think you do, but you don't. And he said the way to do it is to learn a language and translate. He
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said, that way, you can practice and you can find out what you can do with your language, with your
language. You can learn a foreign language but the translation is your way of learning your own
language.W.S. Merwin's first book of verse, "A Mask for Janus" was chosen for the Yale
Younger Poets Prize by W.H. Auden. It reflects Merwin's early work as poet and translator
focusing on the myths and legends of ancient civilizations.
Another writer who advocated The Dailies was Dorthea Brande. She advised: hitch your
unconscious mind to your writing arm.Reading Dorthea Brande on Becoming A Writer, one begins
to believe that genius is simply an electrical charge that flows through the body. As John
Gardener writes in the foreword —the root problems of writers are personality problems. You may
read the book on Blackboard. Brande writes: All that is necessary to break the spell of inertia and
frustration is this: Act as if it were impossible to fail. This is the talisman, the formula, the command of
right-about-face which turns us from failure towards success.
STRUCTURE AND GOALS OF NEXT SIXTEEN WEEKS:
We’ll work together to help each other complete the best poems possible.
WEEKLY FOLIOS POSTED TO BLACKBOARD ON TUESDAY EVENINGS: You will post weekly
folios to Blackboard on Tuesday evenings before Wednesday workshop. Each folio will
contain a minimum of the following: an annotation of book read that week , or at least one
imitation of a poem from that book (include original poem), or one page of lines ; dailies,
including imitation and prompt as part of your seven poems(if you have a prompt that week,
it will be done in class, so, for instance, your prompt for week 1 is Gesture the Unsaid which
you completed and shared in workshop; you may include prompt as one of your seven
poems).
For the record: a prompt counts as one of your seven poems in dailies and an
imitation counts as one of your seven poems in dailies.
Here is an example of Week 1 folio:

Upper- right hand corner: your name, group and week number: Alcosser, Group A
or B ; Week 1
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
Title of book read, annotation or lines or copy of at least one poem imitated
followed by imitation

The Dailies: 7 poems—date each poem, and if it is a prompt or imitation, note either
name of prompt of name of poem imitated.
Please select ten books from the list that follows, or make suggestions to me. I welcome
alternatives. Post selected booklist at the beginning of your Discussion Board folio.
Bibliography
Akhmatova, Anna. Stanley Kunitz, translator.
Alvarez, Julia . Homecoming
Boland, Eavan. Woman Without a Country
Cage, John. Rolywholyover: A Circus for Museum
Carson, Anne. Economy of the Unlost and Nox
Cavafy, C.P. .Collected Poems, translated by Daniel Mendelsohn or Rae Dalven
Doty, Mark. Fire to Fire
Follain, Jean. D’Apres Tout ( tr. Heather McHugh) or Transformations (tr. W.S. Merwin)
Gilbert, Jack. Collected Poems
Gluck, Louise. Wild Iris
Goedicke, Patricia. As Earth Begins to End.
Hejinian, Lyn. My Life
Hirsch, Edward. Gabriel
Issa, Kobayashi. The Year of My Life
Justice, Donald.Collected Poems
Kooser, Ted.
Levis, Larry. Elegy
Lindenberg, Rebecca. Love: An Index
Lowell, Robert. Life Studies
Merwin, W.S. Map of Sirius
Milosz, Czeslaw. Unattainable Earth
Niedecker, Lorraine. Granite Pail
Ondaatje, Michael. Running in the Family /Cinnamon Peeler
Phillips, Patrick. Boy and Elegy for a Broken Machine
Simic, Charles. The World Doesn’t End
Smith, Tracy K. Life on Mars
Swir, Anna. Building the Barricade
Zagajewski, Adam. Mysticism for Beginners
Zobel, Monika. An Instrument for Leaving
Prose:
Auster,Paul. The Invention of Solitude
Calvino, Italo. Invisible Cities
Colette. My Mother’s House and Sido
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H.D. Tribute to Freud
Manguso, Sarah. Ongoingness: The End of A Diary
Navokov, Vladimir. Speak Memory
Neruda, Pablo. Memoirs
Proust, Marcel. Remembrance of Things Past , see Bard’s site: http://www.radioproust.org
Shonagon, Sei. The Pillow Box
Tolstoy, Leo. Childhood, Boyhood and Youth
Woolf, Virginia. Moments of Being
Yates, Frances. The Art of Memory
Poetry and Prose in which the story is told by a narrator who was not protagonist but
who must tell the tale:
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The Ancient Mariner
Fitzgerald, F.Scott. The Great Gatsby
Warren, Robert Penn. All the Kings Men
Anthologies:
Forche, Carolyn ed. The Witness of Poetry
Milosz, Czeslaw ed. The Book of Luminous Things
Simic, Charles, ed. The Horse Has Six Legs
Additionally we will read Ten Windows for Jane Hirshfield’s visit on November 4th.
SCHEDULE (PLEASE NOTE , ADDITIONAL CONVERSATIONS AND PROMPTS WILL BE
ADDED AS GIVEN) :
August 27th:
 Sign up for Group A /Group B
Prompt : Gesture the Unsaid
September 1-2:
 Post Week #1 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( A tentative booklist; your
response to first book read in the form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure
to include poem imitated; the dailies=7 poems focused on gesture including prompt
and imitation(s))
 The Dailies = 7 poems, including prompt and imitation with each one focusing on
gesture.Group A and B bring 22 copies of #1 poem to workshop
 Discuss syllabus
 Read and respond to first poems from Group A
 Take home Group B’s first poems for next week
September 8-9:
 Post Week #2 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( response to book read in the
form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure to include poem imitated; the
dailies=7 poems including prompt and imitation(s))
 Conversation and prompt:
 Read and respond to first poems from Group B
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
Take home Group A’s second poems for next week
September 15-16:
 Post Week #3 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( response to book read in the
form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure to include poem imitated; the
dailies=7 poems including prompt and imitation(s))
 Conversation and prompt:
 Read and respond to second poems from Group A; break into smaller groups
 Take home Group B’s second poems for next week
September 22-23:
 Post Week #4 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( response to book read in the
form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure to include poem imitated; the
dailies=7 poems including prompt and imitation(s))
 Conversation and prompt:
 Read and respond to second poems from Group B; break into smaller groups
 Take home Group A’s third poems for next week
 Poet Maria Rybakova:Living Writers Series at 7W in Love Library Room 430
September 29-30 :
 Post Week #5 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( response to book read in the
form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure to include poem imitated; the
dailies=7 poems including prompt and imitation(s))
 Conversation and prompt:
 Read and respond to third poems from Group A
 Take home Group B’s third poems for next week
October 6-7:
 Post Week #6 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( response to book read in the
form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure to include poem imitated; the
dailies=7 poems including prompt and imitation(s))
 Conversation and prompt:
 Read and respond to third poems from Group B
 Take home Group A’s fourth poems for next week

October 13-14:
 Post Week #7 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( response to book read in the
form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure to include poem imitated; the
dailies=7 poems including prompt and imitation(s))
 Conversation and prompt:
 Read and respond to fourth poems from Group A
 Take home Group B’s fourth poems for next week
October 20-21:
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
Post Week #8 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( response to book read in the
form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure to include poem imitated; the
dailies=7 poems including prompt and imitation(s))
Conversation and prompt:
Read and respond to fourth poems from Group B
Take home Group A’s fifth poems for next week
Poet Malachi Black, Living Writers Series @ 7pm W , Love Library Room 430
October 27-28:
 Post Week #9 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( response to book read in the
form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure to include poem imitated; the
dailies=7 poems including prompt and imitation(s))
 Read and respond to fifth poems from Group A
 Read Ten Windows , do one imitation and be prepared to share
 Take home Group B’s fifth poems for discussion November 11
November 3-4:
 Post Week #10 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( response to book read in the
form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure to include poem imitated; the
dailies=7 poems including prompt and imitation(s))
 Conversation about Ten Windows
 Bring seven copies of your dailies to discuss in small workshop
 Poet Jane Hirshfield,Living Writers Series @ 7pm W , Love Library Room 430 with
writer interview following until 9:40
November 10-11:
 Post Week #11 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( response to book read in the
form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure to include poem imitated; the
dailies=7 poems including prompt and imitation(s))
 Read and respond to fifth poem from Group B
 Take home Group A’s sixth poem for next week
November 17-18:
 Post Week #12 on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday ( response to book read in the
form of annotation, imitation(s) or lines—be sure to include poem imitated; the
dailies=7 poems including prompt and imitation(s))
 Read and respond to sixth poem from Group A
 Poets Piotr Florczyk and Martin Woodside, Living Writers Series @ 7pm W , Love
Library Room 430
November 24-25:
 Post final portfolio on Blackboard by midnight Tuesday November 24. It should
contain six poems from workshop with revisions if necessary prompts (title of
prompt at top right-hand corner), Dailies (with last day first and first day last). At
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
the back of portfolio, list titles of twelve books read, each title followed by
annotation, imitation or lines.
No class on November 25th
December 1-2:
 Post by midnight Tuesday, December 2, a matrix of six places where you will submit
or have submitted your poems from this workshop.
 Send your poems to each of six places on your matrix.
 Read and respond to sixth poem from Group B
December 9:
 Final 5-minute memorized performance of your work
MEMBERS OF GROUP A (PLEASE PLACE YOUR NAME, GROUP AND POEM # IN TOP,
RIGHT-HAND CORNER OF EACH POEM SUBMITTED TO WORKSHOP)
1. RACHEL GREENBERG
2. JANEL SPENSER
3. MARTA BALCEWICZ
4. ANA BOSCH
5. BRANDEN BOYNTON
6. GABRIEL RUBI
7. ARTHUR KAYZAKIAN
8. CARLOS KELLY
9. KAYLA RODNEY
10. THEODORE NIEKRAS
MEMBERS OF GROUP B (PLEASE PLACE YOUR NAME, GROUP AND POEM # IN TOP,
RIGHT-HAND CORNER OF EACH POEM SUBMITTED TO WORKSHOP)
1. CHERYL HEINEMAN
2. BINH NGUYEN
3. ERICA BLUNT
4. RON SALISBURY
5. JON RODLEY
6. CHANCE AUSTIN-BRECHER
7. ERIC MAGNUSON
8. HARI ALURI
9. BREEANN KIRBY
10. MAKEBA MCLEOD
11. ALYSSABETH KNERR
SMALL WORKSHOPS
1. HARI, MARTA, JON, BREEANN, KAYLA, CHERYL, JANEL
2. RACHEL, BINH, ARTHUR, CHANCE, ALYSSABETH,GABRIEL, ERIC
3. RON, ERICA, ANA, CARLOS, BRANDEN, MAKEBA, THEODORE
PLEASE SIGN UP FOR A FIFTEEN-MINUTE CONFERENCE ON SEPTEMBER 16TH
REVIEW YOUR BOOKLIST —BRING 1 POEM, BOOKLIST, AND QUESTIONS TO
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TO
CONFERENCE. THIS IS THE TIME TO TALK ABOUT YOUR WORK AS A POET, NOT THE
TIME TO TALK ABOUT YOUR POS.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
 **ATTENDANCE, PARTICIPATION:
15% OF
GRADE

CONSTRUCTIVE CRITIQUES OF
15% OF
GRADE
POEMS AND FOLIOS BEFORE AND
DURING WORKSHOP

BLACKBOARD FOLIOS POSTED
EVERY TUESDAY EVENING
BEFORE MIDNIGHT-LAST POSTING NOVEMBER 24TH.

FINAL PRESENTATION: A FIVE- MINUTE
(MEMORIZED) RECITATION
60%
10% OF
GRADE
***ONE ABSENCE IS THE EQUIVALENT OF 3 CLASSES; IF YOU MISS MORE THAN ONE CLASS,
YOUR GRADE WILL BE LOWERED.
CLASS PROCEDURE:
Bring one poem to workshop every other week. Write your name, group letter(A or B),
poem # in upper right hand corner. The poem should be typed and duplicated
(_22__copies). Members are expected to take home all poems and respond to them for the
next session. Responses will be written , signed and returned to poet. When your poem is
discussed in the next session, each person will return his/her copy with comments to you.
Hold on to these comments. They will aid you in revision.
WORKSHOP ETIQUETTE:
1) Every writer is in charge of deciding what changes to make in his/her writing. When your
work is being discussed, listen carefully and take notes. Assume that the readers in the group
are sympathetic and intelligent. Assume that your readers, who may see your work in a
journal, will not have the opportunity to converse with you regarding points which must be
explained or clarified. Think of your text as being in its own right. You will have the
opportunity to answer and ask questions about the criticism.
2) Every reader is in charge of deciding how s/he reacts to a piece of writing. As a critic in
the workshop, you are responsible for helping other writers see first the strength of their
poems, then how you believe they might improve. This is possible by simply stating what
you think you have read or by asking questions. Be even-handed and remember that each
person in the workshop, including the instructor, has his or her own vision. To help one
another learn, try to distinguish between that which you like and/or dislike because it is an
issue of taste, as opposed to what might be an issue of craft.
If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class,
it is your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services at (619) 594-6473. To avoid
any delay in the receipt of your accommodations, you should contact Student Disability
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Services as soon as possible. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that
accommodations based upon disability cannot be provided until you have presented your
instructor with an accommodation letter from Student Disability Services. Your cooperation
is appreciated.
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