Reimagining the Page: Containers of Form and Meaning in Poetry with Sabina Khan-Ibarra

FRIDAYS, Oct. 3rd - 24th | What happens when a poem looks like a dictionary entry or reads like a recipe? In this generative four-week poetry workshop, we’ll explore how poets across traditions transform familiar forms into powerful containers for memory, identity, and resistance. Each week, we’ll read and discuss published poems that bend and subvert form, from Layli Long Soldier to Terrance Hayes, and we’ll generate new work through guided prompts and playful constraint. You’ll be encouraged to experiment with visual layout, voice, and structure in ways that serve the heart of your poem.

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By the end of the course, students will:

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• Explore a variety of poetic forms, including abecedarians, sonnets, recipes, and visual/shape-based poetry.
• Read and analyze poems by contemporary writers including Layli Long Soldier, Natalie Diaz, Douglas Kearney, and Terrance Hayes.
• Generate four new poems inspired by formal constraints and cultural frameworks.
• Experiment with revising a poem by altering its structure or shape.
• Leave with a portfolio of drafts and a deeper understanding of how form can enhance, disrupt, or transform meaning.

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