Feb 5, 2015 / Blogging U.

Join the Con-verse-ation! Writing 201: Poetry Is Starting Soon.

For two weeks this month, let’s all live, breathe, and share our poetry.

In less than two weeks we’ll be unveiling our first-ever Blogging U. course dedicated to poetry. Does joining a verse-loving community where you can share your work in a supportive, collegial environment sound like fun? Just scroll to the bottom of the post and sign up. Need more information about this course? Read on!

Poets of the world, unite!

The idea behind Writing 201: Poetry is to bring together poets of all styles, temperaments, and experience levels in a way that encourages writing, sharing, and discussion. You get to decide how laid back or challenging you want the course to be.

Each day for the duration of the course (not counting weekends), you’ll receive an assignment, made up of three parts: a word prompt, a poetic form, and a poetic device. You get to choose which of these you want to explore (if any).

We’d like to emphasize that we welcome novices and seasoned poets alike, as well as writers of any and all poetic persuasions.

For example, an assignment might invite you to write a poem with the word “Snail” as its inspiration. Then, you’ll have the option to write that poem in a particular form that we’ll introduce and explain that day (say, couplets). Finally, for an extra layer of experimentation, we’ll throw in an optional poetic device for you to use (for example, a synecdoche).

The result? Entirely up to you, really. You could write a free-verse poem about snails. You could compose couplets about the joys of drinking milkshake. You could include a synecdoche in a ballad about your postman. Or you could write about snails, in couplets, employing a synecdoche. (Or do none of the above and just take a day to read and comment on others’ poems. Remember: no grades, no formal posting requirement.)

As the course progresses, we’ll move from relatively simple forms and devices to slightly more challenging ones, which you’ll get to use, tweak, or ignore as you wish. That’s it: by the end of the course you’ll have a few more poems to your name, feedback and comments from supportive readers, a few more items in your poetic toolkit (stretched metaphor alert!), and a crew of new friends and blogs to follow.

How do Blogging U. courses work?

Beyond the details mentioned above, Writing 201: Poetry follows the same basic principles of all Blogging U. courses, which means that…

  • It’s free, flexible, and open to all. The course is aimed to help you meet your own blogging and writing goals while connecting you to a community of like-minded, poetry-loving bloggers.
  • We’ll post new assignments here on The Daily Post each weekday at midnight (GMT). Each assignment will contain all the inspiration and instructions you need to complete it. Weekends are free.
  • Each course will have a private community site, the Commons, for chatting, connecting, and seeking feedback and support. Daily Post staff and Happiness Engineers will be on hand to answer your questions and offer guidance and resources.

How do I register?

Please note: You won’t receive an automatic confirmation message after submitting your form. You will get a welcome message with more details before the course starts.

Just fill out this metaphor-free, unrhymed, unmetered signup form and you’re done:

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  1. I hit the “request access” a few days ago, but nothing seems to have happened. Did I do something wrong? It’s my breath isn’t it . . . . I’ll go gargle and hit the “request access” button again.

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