WILL TO LIVE: On Catalogues and Lists, and Charting a Course for New Poems: Generative Workshop with Tina Cane (Zoom)

“We like lists because we don’t want to die,” Umberto Eco writes in The Infinity of Lists. Indeed. Death’s certainty promises that every life is finite, whereas lists really are infinite with possibility. Even a litany of the most unremarkable stuff: vodka, milk, apples, cookies, bananas, eggs, soap…reveals the story of a life--of drinking vodka, eating bananas, of washing one’s hands. An inventory of habit and necessity, the list also registers concern or connection—which is where it begins to enter the province of poetry. In this generative workshop, we will explore the list as a concept and a tool. We will think about form, intention, the cumulative tension and power of lists, and how they fit into our idea of what a poem is. We will discover how catalogue and compendium can unlock creativity, and can map the course for new work.

This online generative poetry workshop will run for…