Let Me Count the Ways: Writing the List Poem

Instructor:  Shari Wagner
Date: Saturday, March 23
Time: 9:30 a.m.-12 p.m.
Location: IWC
Cost: $63 nonmembers, $40 members, $35 student members/teacher members/senior members/military members

There’s something universally appealing about the list poem, a form going back to Homer, the Old Testament, and Native American prayers. During this class, we’ll look at list poems by contemporary poets and engage in writing activities designed to generate inventory and transform it to meaningful verse. Bring to class something you find in your house: an old diary, yearbook, photograph, or cookbook; a shoebox of something from deep in a closet, a handful of odds and ends from a junk drawer, items from a childhood collection, an old purse with stuff still inside, what’s on the refrigerator door—anything that’s accumulated some age or use or memory and is easy to transport.