About
Dates: 2 Thursdays, April 2-9 Time: 6-8pm (Pacific Coast Time) Format: Zoom Ages: Adult Class Description: Focusing on syllabic forms—haiku, tanka, cinquain, etheree, nonet—this course invites students to attend closely to the acoustic and structural elements of language. We will examine how syllables function in verse, learning to count, shape, and manipulate them to produce poems of formal precision and sonic resonance. Alongside these forms, we’ll consider finer rhythmic phenomena: the ghostly schwa (ə), the dynamics of stressed and unstressed syllables, and the shaping influence of meter, phrasing, and poetic breath. Our inquiry extends to repetition as a generative principle—its uses not merely rhetorical, but musical and affective. We’ll read and write with an ear toward assonance, anaphora, and other recursive devices that pattern language and intensify tone. Through close reading, guided prosody work, and generative writing, students will develop a sensitivity to the cadences of their language, gaining practical tools for sculpting poems with sonic clarity and formal intent. LEFT MARGIN LIT'S CANCELLATION/REFUND POLICY: If you find that you can't take a class for which you registered, you may request a refund, less a $25 administrative fee, at least 48 hours prior to the start of the first class session. After that threshold, refunds are not possible. If a class doesn't reach its minimum enrollment, it will be cancelled, and all students will receive full refunds.