Listen to This is a 4-week virtual poetry course I am teaching in February 2023 with The Loft Literary Center. I'm so excited to explore two of my favorite things: songs & stanzas. Was that too cheesy? Oh well.

Wednesdays, February 15 - March 8, 2023

6-8 pm CST • Live via Zoom

​Music is a universal language. Whether you understand the mechanics of a song or not, you can probably pinpoint a moment when you heard a song and it made you feel something. Maybe you’ve had the same experience with a poem. In this class, we’ll bring both to the table, and see what happens when we write poems about or to the songs that have shaped us.

Come to class with an open mind, ready to play and experiment. We’ll use music as a context to explore form in poetry, write to music-related memories, and engage with your favorite songs. We’ll look at poems from Hanif Abdurraqib, Ada Limón, Sabrina Benaim, Phil Kaye, Adam Falkner, Brenna Twohy, and more. In each session, we’ll warm up with short, generative writing exercises, look at and discuss several poems and songs, and end with a more substantial writing prompt.

You’ll leave this course with at least four new drafts, a community of classmates, and ideas to keep you writing about music into the future. There will be opportunities to read your work to your classmates each session. You’ll also have the opportunity to get written feedback on one poem from the instructor.