Poetry Playground: An Exploration of Joy
[Poet Jack Gilbert] has another line in there…something about — “To only give your attention to darkness and suffering is to worship the devil,” or, “to give your power to the devil.” And you know, you have to be careful about this, especially when you have an impulse to be a good person — a “good person,” and your definition of a good person is somebody who gives everything to others. It’s a beautiful impulse, but if it’s done from a place of only giving darkness and suffering your attention, then you become somebody who’s very difficult to be around. There’s a lovely line that this British columnist said, one time, that “You can always tell people who live for others by the anguished expressions on the faces of the others.” …The people that you’re serving feel heavy, because they feel like they’re a burden and a responsibility. And so, if you can find the gladness and the lightness, I think your service becomes better, and I think your art becomes better.
-Elizabeth Gilbert, from “On Being” interview, July 7, 2016 (worth listening/reading the transcript)
Above all, poetry should be fun.
OK, well, to be fair, sometimes it’s about wrestling with something, so maybe we could say “individually fulfilling.” Turning one’s sorrows and anger and fears and confusion into artful expression, and hopefully gaining solace from the act. But nuance aside, if it’s not in some way enjoyable in the moment, it’s not worth doing.
Poetry’s usually not profitable. While one could say it can make you the right friends, in general revealing you write poetry will make people’s eyes glaze over or they’ll ask “Poetry…people still do that these days?” Getting a poem published in a way that’s enduring enough such that the public can easily find it 10-20 years later is difficult, and 200 years from now it’s highly likely that there will be almost no trace left of us as individuals.
But if poetry brings you joy and satisfaction in the here and now, then that’s a win you get to enjoy today. You can have that as long as you can keep writing. And paradoxically, I’ve found that getting to that place of play, being in a mindset where I’m just fooling around, has led to the poems I’ve written that others have appreciated the most.
So for the next eight months, I’m proposing we embark on an exploration of joy. You can participate every month, or just once or twice. For each month, I’ve chosen a poetry technique or exercise from my list of the most fun types of poems I know. Some of these will be familiar if you know about the weirder parts of my class How to Write a Poem Every Day, but some are ones I haven’t presented through this site before. Almost all of them involve the physical world and you might need construction paper, scissors, paint, etc… Getting away from your computer is highly encouraged!
Format: We’ll meet on the first Sunday of the month over Zoom for an hour so that I can introduce each month’s technique and we can look at different related poems together (these calls will be recorded, in case you can’t make it). Then you’ll go off to work on your poem(s) as much as you choose. We’ll come back together on Zoom on a Sunday towards the end of the month (a couple of dates around holidays may change) to share our creations and talk about how it went. These calls will not be recorded.
There will also be an optional forum in the private class area of this site where you can interact with other participants, ask questions, chat about how it’s going, and post what you’re working on. This will be mainly a peer-driven forum and instructor feedback will be brief. To help maintain a spirit of play, participants will be encouraged to positively support one another’s work. No artistic skill required: if you made it through elementary school you have the crafting ability for this course. Remember, we’re just fooling around here.
Here are the topics and dates for each of the eight months 2026-2027 (take as many or as few as you like):
October 4 Intro / October 25 Sharing: Word Tickets
Poems are made of words – let’s play with them. This month we’ll reconnect with this basic unit of language, savor words themselves, think about how different poets use word choice (diction), and see what poems emerge. Like playing with a Magnetic Poetry kit, but taking it further. Suggested extra materials: 5-10+ sheets of colorful paper and scissors, or a roll of perforated raffle tickets.
November 1 Intro / November 22 Sharing: Poem Walks
Let’s make some time for some literary walks. There’s a long tradition of poets taking walks, and science has shown walking facilitates thinking and creativity. We’ll explore what a number of poets have to say about taking a stroll, dip into the science a bit, read some walking poems, and then take off for some poem walks ourselves. Suggested extra materials: a pair of comfortable shoes for walking.
December 6 Intro / December 27 Sharing: Erasures
(sharing date subject to change based on participants’ winter holiday plans)
Also known as Blackout Poems, it’s likely you’ve seen Erasures before if you were following the poetry world on social media in the late 2010s (though the practice goes back much earlier). We’ll look at a wide variety of highly creative and visual Erasures (beyond just black marker) and discuss advice and methods for creating them, including using them as a way of commenting on our current AI-saturated textual environment. Suggested extra materials: an opaque black marker, lots of correction fluid or tape, and/or another way to cover text (paint, markers, etc…). You’ll also need a book or a few photocopied pages that you feel comfortable heavily marking up, but you may want to wait until you’ve heard what I have to say about choosing your text.
January 10 Intro / January 31 Sharing: Centos
The cento is a specific type of literary collage where you stitch together lines or passages from other poems (usually other people’s poems) into a new, independent piece. It has deep roots going back to the 3rd or 4th century, when poets used to string together verses made up of quotes from Virgil and Homer. We’ll look at classical, Modern, and contemporary examples, and consider slight variations on the cento that don’t involve using other poets’ work.
February 7 Intro / February 28 Sharing: Poetry Dioramas / Poems in Three Dimensions
Be sure to save a shoebox! Poems don’t have to stay on the page or even be flat. This month we’ll look at work in this sculpture subset of visual poetry from David Antin, Christian Bök, John Cage, Anne Carson, Jen Bervin, and Jody Gladding. We’ll also consider artist books where text plays a role, and collaborations between poets and sculptors (Mei-mei Berssenbrugge/Kiki Smith, Robert Creely/Cletus Johnson, Charles Bernstein/Richard Tuttle). Though we’ll definitely be in what some might call “artsy-fartsy” territory, for our own practice we’ll keep it fun and simple by asking what our adult poet selves might do when we return to that elementary school project, the diorama. Suggested extra materials: some kind of box approximately shoebox-sized (does not need to be similar dimensions). Colored paper, string, glue, and any other craft supplies or random small objects that you think could be helpful in making your diorama. Creative thinking and scavenging are encouraged.
March 7 Intro / Saturday, March 27 Sharing: Collage
(Note Sharing day change due to Easter)
We’ll continue our visual explorations by trying out poetic collages that bring together our own text (or possibly found text) with found images or visual elements. Examples will include poems by Lyn Hejinian, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, and Lorine Niedecker, as well as materials from the Kolaj Institute’s PoetryXCollage project. Suggested extra materials: magazines, newspapers, printed advertisements, and other sources of interesting/colorful paper. Glue and/or tape.
April 4 Intro / April 25 Sharing: Grab Bag Poems
I’ve very generously shared some of my favorite poetry exercises on this page, but I’m going to be a little coy with this one since I think surprise is part of the fun. And no, “Grab Bag” does not refer to Tristan Tzara’s “random poem from a bag” Dada stunt. This month will feature an exercise I invented long ago for a small poetry gathering that was part of the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Learning Community, where a few dozen first-year students lived together in two dormitory hallways. They had great fun with it, and this month is a sort of experiment to see if a much different group of older poets, who I assume clean their living spaces much more often, can enjoy it just as much. (Though if you yourself happen to be a 19-year-old college student, you’re welcome too!) I’ll include some relevant poems that will enhance how you think and feel your way through this exercise.
May 2 Intro / May 23 Sharing: Text / Image Juxtaposition
This is a specific form of collage that involves using the text from one book and illustrations from another. We’ll look at several example poems that illustrate this technique, plus more traditional poems that work with juxtaposition in other ways. I’ll also share some resources for finding great images. Suggested extra materials: Glue or clear tape and photocopier access. You’ll also need two source texts, but I suggest waiting for the Introduction.
Note that for the months involving using the work of others, materials about the line between ethical use and plagiarism will be provided, and participants are encouraged to bring this topic up for discussion if there’s interest, questions, or discomfort. There’s lots of room to engage with and respond to what others have done, but it should not be a free-for-all.
Time: All sessions will be held at 12:30 PM Eastern (New York time). See schedule above for specific dates. The first call each month will be recorded, but the second will not. Depending on what platform we end up using, calls may be posted as unlisted links on YouTube (meaning that they are not searchable and can only be accessed if one has the direct link).
Where: Zoom
Cost: $25 for each session individually, $70 for a package of four, $130 for all sessions. Even if you purchase all sessions after some have passed, you’ll get access to the Introduction recordings and discussion area activity. The all-sessions package is available at an early-bird rate of $100 through September 22, 2026.
Instructor: Meg Hartmann