What if form isn’t restrictive, but liberating?
In this four-week poetry class, we’ll explore how formal constraints can actually make poems stronger by forcing precision, distillation, and attention to language. Through forms like the pantoum, sonnet, tanka, and ghazal, we’ll study how repetition, brevity, turn, and refrain create emotional pressure, movement, and surprise.
Each week, we’ll read contemporary and classic poems, paying close attention to how form shapes meaning. We’ll then move into short, generative exercises and prompts that allow you to experiment with these forms in your own voice. This is not about perfection or strict adherence, but about discovering what form can unlock in your writing.
This class is generative, with optional sharing and light feedback. Writers of all levels are welcome.
Outcomes
By the end of this class, students will:
• Gain familiarity with four poetic forms: pantoum, sonnet, tanka, and ghazal
• Understand how constraint can create tension, clarity, and emotional depth
• Write new draft poems each week using formal strategies
• Develop stronger attention to line, repetition, image, and compression
• Leave with multiple new pieces and tools for continued revision
Sabina Khan-Ibarra is a Pashtun American poet, writer, and educator based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is Director of Rooted & Written at The Writers Grotto, a tuition-free fellowship supporting writers of color. She teaches at The Writers Groto, Litquake's Elder Project and San Diego Writers Ink. Her work explores language, memory, displacement, and the complexities of being “othered” in America, and has appeared in journals such as Anomaly Literary, Rising Phoenix, and iO Literary. She teaches generative, craft-focused classes that center image, compression, and emotional resonance, helping writers deepen their voice and sharpen their work.