Byronic & Poetic

This one is going to work a little differently from the other reading clubs. We’re not going to be as stringent about prompts, and this won’t function as a workshop. You’re absolutely welcome to write poetry in response to something we read, but I can’t guarantee feedback on that work. I only have so many hands, though I occasionally wish I could be Lakshmi.

The process will work roughly as follows:

1. On Sundays, I’ll post three poems for the week. This will vary depending on length—we obviously cannot expect to read all of Don Juan in seven days.
2. Group members should have the poems read by Wednesday.
3. Spend the next few days sitting with them. Re-read them. Let them irritate you, confuse you, or follow you around for a while.
4. On Fridays or Saturdays, group members will respond to whichever works spoke to them most strongly.
5. On Saturday nights, if there’s enough interest, I’ll host an hour-long session where we can talk through our responses and hear how everyone else encountered the work.

I’d also like group members to steer me toward general themes, periods, styles, or questions they want to explore. Think of me less as the instructor and more as the curator. I’ve read a lot of this stuff over the years, so feel free to use me as a mildly opinionated reference desk.