In his book, Structure and Surprise, Michael Theune distinguishes structure from form, saying: "poetic structure is, simply, the pattern of a poem's turning.” He argues that the distinguishing feature of a good poem is surprising turns. Elsewhere, poets have talked about the architecture of a poem as the relationship between form and content. In that sense, the pattern of a poem’s turning could be said to be the form that it requires to function. In this single-session class, we will look at several kinds of turns, excavate the “blueprint” of some oft-discussed poems, and examine the architecture of the poems that we, ourselves, have been working on. Ultimately, this workshop will reveal a new approach to revision.
(Note: please bring a poem that you have been working on.)
Joy Priest is the author of Horsepower (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020), selected as the winner of the Donald Hall Prize for Poetry by U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey. She is the recipient of a 2021 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship and the 2019-2020 Fine Arts Work Center fellowship, and she has won the Inprint Paul Verlaine Prize in Poetry and the Stanley Kunitz Memorial Prize from the American Poetry Review. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications, including the Academy of American Poets' Poem-a-Day series, The Atlantic, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among others, as well as in commissions for the Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). She is currently editing an anthology of Louisville poets for Sarabande Books.
"Joy's understanding of craft is exceptional. (I knew that from reading her first book, HORSEPOWER, last summer.) Now I know her own mastery of craft is more than matched by her ability to inspire and teach!"
"Excellent experience! I learned many new ideas and concepts for writing and understanding poetry, and I appreciated Joy's knowledge and facilitation. I would absolutely take more classes with Joy Priest and with The Porch!"