Kevin Clark Poetry
  • Home
  • About
    • Biography
    • CV Highlights
    • The Other Life
    • Interviews
      • Stephen F. Austin University Press Interview
      • Five Oaks Press
      • Flashpoint
      • Propeller Magazine
      • New Times
      • Pleiades Press
      • Moebius
      • Beacon Street Review
      • Brockport Writers Forum
  • Books
    • The Consecrations
      • Two Stories
      • Admitting Belief
      • In Between
      • Introductory Video
    • The Wanting
    • Self-Portrait with Expletives
      • Flashback at Castelfranco
      • This, Then
      • Eight Hours in the Nixon Era
    • In the Evening of No Warning
      • Our Children Playing Catch in the Evening of No Warning
      • Widow Under a New Moon
      • The Price
    • The Mind’s Eye: A Guide to Writing Poetry
      • Sample Quarter Syllabus
      • Sample Semester Syllabus
  • Plays
  • Teaching
    • Philosophy of Teaching
    • Courses & Topics
    • MFA Programs
  • Multimedia
  • Links
  • Contact

“In the midst of our happiness we were very pleased.”

—Gertrude Stein

“I like restraint—if doesn’t go too far.”

—Mae West

“There is only one plot: Things are not what they seem.”

—Jim Thompson

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?”

—Satchell Page

“Keep your eye clear and hit ’em where they ain’t.”

—Wee Willie Keeler

“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.”

—David Hare

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”

—Mark Twain

“Let’s play two.”

—Ernie Banks

“Poetry is a dream dreamed in the presence of reason.”

—Tommaso Ceva

“The art of running the mile consists, in essence, of reaching the threshold of consciousness at the instant of breasting the tape.”

—Paul O’Neil

“Poetry begins where certitude ends.”

—Eavan Boland

“A work of art is never completed, merely abandoned.”

—Paul Valery

“For me the initial delight is in the surprise of remembering something I didn’t know I already knew.”

—Robert Frost

Sample Semester Syllabus

Based on The Mind’s Eye: A Guide for Writing Poetry by Kevin Clark

Secondary text: Contemporary American Poetry, edited by R.S. Gwynn and April Lindner

Date | Reading | Assignments Due

Week One: Imagery, Idiom, & Inspiration

Day 1

First day

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2


Week Two: Sound & Image

Day 1

Choice of exercise: Chapters 1 or 2 [COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Stern “The Dancing” 78
Wright “Autumn Begins …” 145, “Lying in a Hammock …” 146
Rich “Living in Sin” 163, “Diving into the Wreck” 164
Barrax “Strangers Like Us …” 205
Williams “Hood” 226
Olds “Topography” 299
Nye “The Traveling Onion” 418
Addonizio “Target” 449

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapter 3


Week Three: Conflict, Transformation, & Revision

Day 1

Chapter 3 exercise [NOT COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Ammons “First Carolina Said-Song” 101
Levine “They Feed They Lion” 150
Goldbarth “Dog, Fish, Shoes (or Beans)” 357

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapter 4
READING QUIZ


Week Four: Psychological Portraiture / Narrative Tension / Revision

Day 1

Chapter 4 exercise [COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Kinnell “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps” 128
Ruark “Polio” 273
Lim “Starlight Haven” 323
Emanuel “Frying Trout While Drunk” 369
Dove “Adolescence III” 424

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapter 5


Week Five: Plot & Drama

Day 1

Chapter 5 [NOT COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Snodgrass “The Examination” 94
Strand “The Tunnel” 209
Nelson “Minor Miracle” 338
Hudgins “Heat Lightning in a Time of Drought” 410
Doty “Bill’s Story” 437
Fennelly “Asked for a Happy Memory” 483

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapter 6
READING QUIZ


Week Six: Imaginative Leaps

Day 1

Chapter 6 exercise [NOT COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Hoffman “Bob” 55
Sexton “Cinderella” 159
Rich “Rape” 167
Plath “Daddy” 197
Stokesbury “The Day Kennedy Died” 332
Peacock “A Favor of Love” 346
Rose “Grandmother Rattler” 363

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapter 7
READING QUIZ


Week Seven: Open Forms Vs. Traditional Forms

Day 1

Chapter 7 exercise [COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Kinnell “Goodbye” 129
Fairchild “Beauty” 287
McHugh “Better or Worse” 365
Goldbarth “Rarefied” 359

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapter 8
READING QUIZ


Week Eight: The Shapes of Poems

Day 1

Chapter 8 exercise [NOT COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Wilbur “The Pardon” 18
Williams “Folding His USA Today …” 185
Hacker “Wagers” 300
Alavarez “Bilingual Sestina” 384
Schnackenberg “Nightfishing” 440

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapter 9


Week Nine: Poems of Desire / Poems of History

Day 1

Chapter 9 exercise [NOT COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Dickey “The Sheep Child” 41
Hass “A Story About the Body” 265
Forche “The Colonel” 385
Mullen “Dim Lady” 436
Addonizio “Fine” 449

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapter 10
READING QUIZ


Week Ten: Surrealism / Realism / Elegy

Day 1

Chapter 10 exercise [COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Ginsberg “A Supermarket in California” 121
Bly “After Drinking All Night with a Friend” 125
Simic “I Was Stolen” 239
Edson “Ape” 214

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapter 11


Week Eleven: Mourning Poems & Love Poems

Day 1

Chapter 11 exercise [NOT COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Merwin “For the Anniversary of My Death” 138, “The Last One” 139
Harper “We Assume …” 237
Ai “She Didn’t Even Wave …” 353
Wiman “Afterwards” 473

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapter 12


Week Twelve: Poems of Desire & Resistance

Day 1

Chapter 12 exercise [NOT COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Dickey “Adultery” 40
Espaillat “Visiting Day” 192
Dunn “The Sexual Revolution” 252
Hall “Sperm Count” 349
Cortez “Undressing a Cop” 377
Rios “The Purpose of Altar Boys” 429
Dove “American Smooth” 426
Andrews “Primping in the Rearview Mirror” 461

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapter 13
READING QUIZ


Week Thirteen: New Angles, New Challenges

Day 1

Chapter 13 exercise [COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Nelson “Lonely Eagles” 335
Hudgins “Air View of an Industrial Scene” 408
Duhamel “Ego” 467

Day 2

The Mind’s Eye: Chapters 14 & 15


Week Fourteen: Stretching the Imagination & Breaking the Rules

Day 1

Choice of exercise: Chapters 14 or 15 [NOT COPIED]

Contemporary American Poetry
Stern “Behaving Like a Jew” 77
Rogers “Discovering Your Subject” 257
Pinsky “Shirt” 259


Week Fifteen: “Final” Revisions

Day 1

NO POEM DUE
Focus on final revisions

Contemporary American Poetry
Hall “Maybe Dats Your Pwoblem Too” 347
McBride “If that Boaty Pink Cadillac …” 398
Lee “Persimmons” 463
Tufariello “Useful Advice” 468

Day 2

NO READING DUE
READING QUIZ
Catch-up workshop


Final Exam

FINAL PORTFOLIO DUE
The final exam is the submission of your poetry portfolio. Each poem’s revision should be stapled above its original. Please place all poems in a manila envelope and write your name and contact information on the outside of the envelope.

Downloadable Syllabus

Click the button below to download a Word document of this syllabus.

Download

Share with friends:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Site Overview

  • Welcome
  • About
    • Biography
    • CV Highlights
    • The Other Life
    • Interviews
      • SFAUP
      • Five Oaks Press
      • Flashpoint
      • Propeller
      • New Times
      • Pleiades
      • Moebius
      • Beacon
      • Brockport
  • Books
    • Consecrations
    • The Wanting
    • Self-Portrait
    • In the Evening
    • The Mind’s Eye
  • Plays
  • Teaching
    • Philosophy
    • Courses
    • MFA Programs
  • Multimedia
  • Links
  • Contact
Kevin Clark
Copyright © 2023 All Rights Reserved
Website by Michaels & Michaels Creative, LLC