Rearranging the Room: The Serial Poem

Some ideas, some questions, are so fertile & generative, they cannot be contained or fully realized in the space of a single poem. One strategy to give some shape/form/direction to material of ongoing concern is the serial poem: a series or sequence of related poems of an indeterminate, often ongoing, length. Not only are serial poems ideal vehicles for our more obsessive poetic impulses, but they are also invitations to explore, expand capacities, and extend & connect associations in ways that often surprise. 

Over four weeks, we’ll embark on our own serial poems (maybe several, as the spirit moves, or as Jack Spicer would say, as the transmissions are received). We will start with reading a variety of serial work, from Spicer, Ed Roberson, Catherine Wagner, Maggie Nelson, Nathaniel Mackey, and others. Once we have a better sense of the serial poem’s possibilities, we develop our own serial poems through prompts, discussions, and critiques. Our ultimate goal will be to find our way into a serial poem that we can pursue, or that will pursue us, beyond the four meetings and eventually toward publication.

Instructor

Ryan Collins is the author of A New American Field Guide & Song Book and several chapbooks. Recently he was a finalist in the Omnidawn Poetry Chapbook Contest, the DIAGRAM/New Michigan Press Chapbook Contest, and the Sixth Finch Chapbook Contest. His work has appeared in Apartment, The Biscuit Hill, Coma, The Mixtape Review, Ninth Letter, Past Ten, Sink Review, swamp pink, and many other places. He is the Executive Director of the Midwest Writing Center and hosts the SPECTRA Reading Series in Rock Island, IL, where he lives.