MFA314 Japanese Poetic Forms

MFA314: Japanese Poetic Forms

Facilitated by Maggie

Average Time Commitment per Week: two to four hours/week (this of course depends upon your reading, compositional, and rewriting speeds)

Time to Complete Course: 6 weeks 

Difficulty (1-5): 3

Course Description:  This course is intended as a workshop in the writing and sharing of Japanese poetic forms. Haiku is of course the most accessible to the Western writer; however, it is a form of greater depth than some of use have experienced. In addition to haiku, we will also practice the writing of tanka, renga, haibun, senryu, and haiku sequences. Finally, I hope also that this course will stimulate discussion of these forms and what they contribute to modern poetry. 

While this course is facilitated, the course will function as a workshop of equals, everyone reading and critiquing the work of peers. Some of us are new to these forms; others of us have played with the rhythms but have not seriously approached these poems as art; others have are more experienced. Nonetheless, we all have much to share.

Required Resources (texts, etc.): How to Haiku: A Writer's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms by Bruce Ross

2002/04 ISBN:0804832323 Trade Paper $12.95

Kindle: How to Haiku: A Writer's Guide to Haiku and Related Forms

Available at your local library or bookstore, or order online from Amazon. On June 27, 2014, only used books were available on Amazon, ranging from $3.00 to $13.

Recommended text: The Haiku Handbook: How to Write, Share, and Teach Haiku

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