I spent yesterday afternoon in my study working on the syllabus for my 24PearlStreet poetry class. Outside, little kids raced up and down the sidewalks on their scooters, chattering and shrieking. It was a lovely sound of spring, and I think their happiness made my syllabus better too.

I've broken the eight-week class into two sections: four weeks focused on creating new work, four weeks focused on revision. Each week will center on a theme. The creation weeks will move through this pattern: generating first words, framing emotion, following sound, discovering character. The revision weeks will concentrate on honing word choice, constructing space, digging for details, finding closure. I think each of those categories will allow me to consider a number of craft issues but also, I hope, help students see how such technical concentrations coalesce into larger movements within a draft.

Anyway, I'm excited about experimenting with this structure. We'll see how it goes.

Today I've got to read poems for a contest, and thoroughly clean the house, and figure out what to do in Chicago. This time next week we'll be flying west to see our young ones!