Shetland poet & ModPo regular Christie Williamson reads his poem “Da Burn” and explains it a bit for us at KWH: http://jacket2.org/commentary/christie-williamson-reads-explains-poem-shetlandic
ModPo’er & teacher Christan Bush tried the ModPo method of collaborative close reading with her students, and it worked! And you can watch it work! The poem they discussed is Theodore Roethke’s “The Waking.”...
Watch a discussion—excerpted from a fall 2018 webcast—in which Rae Armantrout describes her encounter with Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”:
We have added to the CCCR* syllabus a discussion led by Max McKenna with some ModPo’ers in Chicago (October 2018) about stanza 2 of Gertrude Stein’s “Stanzas in Meditation.” Here are the links as...
ModPo is all about encouraging people worldwide to collaborate on close readings of poems. Here’s the newest addition to the CCCR (=Community Collaborative Close Readings syllabus)—a discussion of Gertrude Stein’s “A Table”: https://www.coursera.org/learn/modpo/resources/r0Zp9
Josh Schuster takes a question about the founding of the Writers House and turns it into an observation about the poem as a utopian space. Watch this 1-minute video.
Further discussion of John Cage’s idea that poetry can demilitarize language:
Watch this 4-minute clip from a 2018 webcast in which Jason Zuzga talks about poetry as yoga:
On the pleasures & disappointments of making your own aleatory (chance-based) poetry—a video clip from our week 9 webcast in 2018. Josh Schuster joined us for this webcast.
Video (9 minutes long): on the continued relevance of the Beats, a discussion that includes poets Angela Carr and Rae Armantrout.
NOTE: All times given are Eastern U.S. Time. Click HERE to watch any of our 2025 webcasts.
Week 1 — Wed, Sept 3 – 3 PM
Week 2 – Wed, Sept 10 – NOON (with Ariel Resnikoff)
Week 3 – Wed, Sept 17 – 8:30 PM
Week 4 – Wed, Sept 24 – 3 PM
Week 5 – Wed, Oct 1 – NOON
Week 6 – Thursday, Oct 9 – 6:30 PM (at Torn Page in NYC)
Week 7 – Wed, Oct 15 — NOON
Week 8 – Wed, Oct 22 — 3 PM (with Sarah Riggs)
Week 9 – Wed, Oct 29 – 10 AM (with Marcella Durand)
Week 10 – Wed, Nov 5– 8:30 PM
FINAL WORDS – Mon, Nov 10 – 11 AM
Yes, you can take ModPo for University of Pennsylvania credit. Three 10-week sessions are offered each year: fall, spring, summer. This version of ModPo is taught by ModPo coordinator Laynie Browne. Click HERE for all the info you need. Contact Laynie with questions at modpo@writing.upenn.edu.
ModPo has created a Teacher Resource Center (“TRC“) for teachers who use ModPo poems & videos in their classrooms. Click HERE to read teaching guides and watch videos in which teachers talk about teaching with ModPo. If you wish to be added to our teachers mailing list, write us at modpo@writing.upenn.edu. Click HERE to discuss ModPo poems with other teachers.
