Peggy drew out attention to poems with something happening off the page. She age as examples “Homecoming” by Shane Book, and two poems of her own which she wrote on the board:

“Beyond Words, This Language” (from Gnawed Bones, Red Hen Press, 2010):

The morning I was born
you held my hand.

The morning you died
I held your hand.

What’s left
to forgive?

“After Talking To My Husband’s Lover” (from The Circle of Totems, U of Pittsburgh Press, 1988)

When I take off my dress
I no longer have a secret
Place left in me.

She pointed out the importance of title in the second poem.

She then had us try to write something “off the page.”

David Crouse then gave us an example of having the dramatic action take place offstage in fiction, and invited us to tru to write such a scene.

Jeanne had us look at the letter poems whe gave us yesterday. She pointed out that these poems should be addressed to a specific person rather than a general audience, and indicate what’s going on now and the past, where the people are now, and why, what are their stories, both together and separately, and what gets the speaker to begin the poem. She had us start letter poems, and continue to work on them as homework.

In the afternoon we all read from our work at Schaible Auditorium.

Peggy, if the indentation isn’t correct on your poems, blame WordPress.