Holy/Wholly Poetry: Articulating the Sacred in Poetic Form

This summer, I'll be teaching an online poetry class through the CALL program at CDSP. Online poetry class, you ask? Yup. It'll be focused on reading and discussing spiritual poetry written by women throughout the ages. Equal parts reading & analysis and writing. The course is only a few weeks, from July 7th to August 24th. As with an online class, you'll have the flexibility of joining the virtual class on your own time, when you want. It's a good exercise AND you get Continuing Education credit for taking the class! To register, click here.

Instructor: Hoang-Anh Tran
Registration Deadline: July 1, 2008
Class Session: July 7 - August 24, 2008

No matter how well-crafted nor how beautiful, poetry can never completely nor accurately describe what is holy or what is sacred. Poetry can only gesture towards something greater than our understanding and experience. Given human artistic limitations, how does one evaluate a poem’s adequacy or success in describing the indescribable? In this course, we will not attempt to define what is or is not holy or spiritual, but will consider how poetry effectively expresses our understanding of what we consider is sacred.

This course will examine how different poetic forms and techniques have been used by women throughout the centuries to articulate the Sacred. Participants will read, analyze, and discuss poetry written by women in various parts of the world. Participants will also craft their own poetry in response to the poets read, and to engage in active discussion of one another’s written forms.

Hoang-Anh Tran, M.F.A. in poetry, University of North Carolina, Wilmington. Fulbright recipient and published poet. Currently on staff at Church Divinity School of the Pacific.