Opening and Closing the Door: Ways to Enter and Exit a Poem with Sharon Dolin (Zoom)

Entrances and exits to a poem are usually more problematic than its middle, and many poets struggle with these two vital moments in a poem or else find themselves repeating the same gestures and techniques. As T.S. Eliot wrote in The Four Quartets, “What we call the beginning is often the end / And to make an end is to make a beginning." In this four-hour workshop, we look at outstanding examples of poems deploying different strategies for opening and closing. In a supportive atmosphere, we discuss at least one poem by each participant to suggest ways to sharpen its beginning and ending to make the poem as engaging as possible. 

BIO

Sharon Dolin is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Imperfect Present (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022); a prose memoir Hitchcock Blonde (Terra Nova Books, 2020); and two books of translation from Catalan: Book of Minutes by Gemma Gorga (Oberlin College Press, 2019) and  Late to the House of Words: Selected Poems…