15 Poets to Open Your Heart and Writing

Want to immerse yourself into poetry you may already love or will get to fall in love while also generating a lot of new poems of your own? This six-week class leads you on a journey through sparkling poetry from many contemporary and and some more ancient poets from across America and around the world, including Rumi, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich, Sharon Olds, Tomas Transtromer, Seamus Heaney, Wislawa Szymborska, William Stafford, Pablo Neruda, Rainer-Maria Rilke, Tess Gallagher, Audre Lorde, Jane Hirshfield, Linda Hogan, and Gregory Orr.

Each week features two or three of the poets, including a sampling of their poetry, links to articles and interviews, and a summary about what their work offers us as readers and writers. Additionally, each week highlights reflections and tips on writing poetry, ways poetry can open our hearts to greater perspective, and lots of writing prompts to help you open doors to new poems. We come together to share our poetry, responses to one another's poetry, and sparks for new ways to consider the poetic power of language. By the end of the workshop, you'll have a big bunch of new poems and, through the poets we're exploring, lots of inspiring poet-companions you're now familiar with and can visit regularly in libraries and bookstores.