The foundations of poetry warrant a lifetime of exploration. In this six-week course, come on a journey that is both generative and speculative. Explore classic and contemporary poems, to locate a few special pillars that make poetry what it is, experimenting with our own writing along the way. In this workshop we will examine the foundations of poetry, through lenses of the musicality of language, syntax, diction, tone, form, structure, catharsis, and privileging the real over the true. Come to dream on the page in a relaxed environment, where we will share our work, holding space for one another’s writing. We will examine, together, what makes poetry move us and how we can communicate those inner songs with greater awareness, intention, and clarity, as we find our voices on the page.
A few poets whose texts we will mine for wisdom, throughout the class (and, one could say, a darn good reading list): Jericho brown, Monica Youn, T.S. Eliot, Gerard Manly Hopkins, John Keene, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath , Kaveh Akbar, Frank O’Hara, Ariana Reines, Marie Howe, Pablo Neruda, Robert Hayden, Sharon Olds, Chika Segawa, Robert Lax, Ocean Vuong, Emily Dickinson, Brenda Shaunessy, Nicole Sealey, Bernadette Mayer, Seamus Heaney, Langston Hughes, and more.
Lauryn Peacock is a poet, musician, music engineer and producer, writer, performer, tutor, teacher, and ghostwriter. She has earned three master’s degrees in her academic career: a Master of Liberal Arts from The University of Pennsylvania, Master of Theological Studies – with certificates in Religion, Arts, and Culture and Gender, Sexuality, and Religion – from Vanderbilt University, and most recently a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from New York University, low-residency in Paris, France. Lauryn has lived in Nashville for over ten years – via Philadelphia and Chicago, among other places. Her music has earned her Lightning 100’s Artist of the Week (for “Camus Blues,” March 2021), Deli Nashville’s Artist of the Month (May 2015), and been featured on WXPN Philadelphia, WXNA Nashville, and frequently in The Nashville Scene. Lauryn enjoys writing poetry, writing and producing songs, dance in its many forms, travel, learning how to incorporate more and more of the Real into her work, and helping others on their artistic journeys. Lauryn firmly believes students already have what it takes to make art before they enter a classroom.
Lauryn is new to The Porch. Welcome!
