Poetry Writing in Service to the Community
EL 19, 5, Fall 1998-99
Fridays, 3-5:20pm
Rick Benjamin 351.4258
Horace Mann, 307 331.2298x18
by appointment
ricncs@ids.net;
Rick_Benjamin@
brown.edu

Course Description:
This course connects the rigorous writing and study of poetry in an academic community to the performance of community service in elementary, middle- and high schools in and around Providence. It has all the virtues of a typical creative writing workshop, and at the same time integrates, in a very hands-on way, service-learning
theories and practices. As a participant in this pilot-course, you will be helping to build the first poets-in-the-schools program in the country staffed and administered almost entirely by college and university students. The class also marks the beginning of an innovative partnership involving Brown University’s departments of Creative Writing and English, and Swearer Center for Public Service, and the Rhode Island Foundation.
This course is (a) practice in all senses, involving: devoted and passionate study and expressions of poetry; concrete applications of learning, teaching and community service;
and commitment to translating (and willingly relinquishing) all the imaginative and intellectual resources/materials of the university classroom to those who might also need or find them useful in K – 12 settings.

Required Texts:
Clifton, Lucille. The Book of Light (Copper Canyon Press)
Hass, Robert. Sun Under Wood (Ecco Press)
____. Twentieth Century Pleasures (Ecco Press)
Hayden, Robert. Collected Poems (Liveright)
Oliver, Mary. West Wind (Houghton Mifflin)
____. Rules for the Dance (Mariner)
Bly, Robert (ed.). The Soul is Here for its own Joy (Ecco Press).
Haba, Jim (ed.). The Language of Life: A Teacher’s Guide (wnet; Dodge Foundation).
[the texts above will be supplemented with a xeroxed packet of poems as well as with video- and audio-tapes]

Course Requirements/Products:

Individual
- a final portfolio of 10 – 15 poems
- 3 – 5 lessons based on poets-in-the-schools visits
- class trip (funded) to the Dodge Poetry Festival.

Collective—
- a Poets-in-the-Schools Handbook (emerging from the course) produced and published by us
- a state-wide poets-in-the-schools/Poetry Writing in Service to the Community web page, created in partnership with the Teachers and Technology Program at the Rhode Island Foundation and the Swearer Center for Public Service
- an electronic journal of K-12 poetry in Rhode Island

Syllabus:

9/11: Introduction to the course and to each other. Beginning with “Stones”: an opening exercise in poetry. Poems by Robert Lax, Rita Dove, Joe Bruchac, Rita Dove and Adrienne Rich.

9/18: Reading/Discussion: “One Body: Some Notes on Form,” from 20th Century Pleasures; chapter from Rules for the Dance. Video: Lucille Clifton and David Mura. Teacher’s Guide: Clifton and Mura materials. Exercise: Singing Dickinson.

9/25: Reading/Discussion: “Listening and Making” in 20th Century Pleasures; Hayden’s “Those Winter Sundays”. Workshop: Dickinson stanza spin-offs.

10/2: Reading: Chapter from Rules for the Dance. Clifton’s The Book of Light (entirety). Workshop: Meaning-impaired Translations.

10/9: Reading/Discussion: The Book of Light (cont’d); Coleman Barks/Rumi in Teacher’s Guide. Video: Coleman Barks/Rumi. Exercise: Writing the Next Lines—Buson’s Example.

10/16: [mid semester break; class meets]. Reading/Discussion: Hayden’s first two books, A Ballad of Remembrance and Words in the Mourning Time. Exercise: Sounding Praise.

10/23: Workshop: Beginning class visits: an Exchange of Information, Resources and Techniques. Workshop: Student poems and recitations.

10/30: Reading/Discussion: Hayden’s Night-Blooming Cereus and American Journal. Exercise: “Blackberries”. Workshop: student poetry and class visit debriefing.

11/6: Reading/Discussion: The Soul is Here for its Own Joy; Snyder and Rich in Teacher’s Handbook. Video: Gary Snyder and Adrienne Rich. Workshop: student poetry and class visit debriefing.

11/13: Reading/Discussion: Sun Under Wood (entirety). Workshop: student poetry and class visit debriefing.

11/20: Reading/Discussion: West Wind (entirety). Workshop: student poetry and class visit debriefing.

11/27: [thanksgiving recess; class does not meet]

12/4: Presentations; celebration of our work.