Category Archives: Craft in Poetry

So You Think You Know the Romantic Poets? Test Yourself.

Posted on June 25, 2017 by Grace Curtis

Can you tell the major Romantic poets apart based on their writing? Just for fun, see if you can match the lines of poetry with the poet who wrote them on the basis of style. Click on the link below for … Continue reading →

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A Riff on Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “One Art”

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Grace Curtis

In late December, a string of rejections coupled with the endless gray days of the Midwestern sky, caused me to stop writing altogether during January and most of February. I felt uninspired, and even though I can usually pull myself … Continue reading →

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Teaching Poetry in an English Workshop–Sakhnin, Israel, Day Four

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Grace Curtis

The seventh graders were on a field trip today so we doubled up our classrooms and team taught. Perry Brokow, a retired teacher from Mt. Vernon, Ohio, and I joined together to teach today. Perry is teaching drama and speech … Continue reading →

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Teaching Poetry in an English Workshop–Sakhnin, Israel, Day Three

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Grace Curtis

Today, we talked about Haiku and looked at sample poems. All told me they had never heard of the concept. I had the students come to the board and mark the syllables as they counted them out. In Arabic, the … Continue reading →

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Teaching Poetry in an English Workshop–Sakhnin, Israel, Day Two

Posted on June 14, 2014 by Grace Curtis

Today the students worked on poems about a body part. I asked them to write at least four lines and to try to include a simile or a metaphor. We had a lengthy discussion about these concepts and they understood … Continue reading →

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Teaching Poetry in an English Workshop–Sakhnin, Israel, Day One

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Grace Curtis

Today was the first day of the English Workshop at Al Bashaer High School in Sakhnin, Israel. There were four classes of 7th, 8th, and 9th graders. The classes only last for 45 minutes and that seems too short The … Continue reading →

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Teaching Poetry in Summer Camp & How to Make a Chapbook

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Grace Curtis

In less than a month, I will travel with six other individuals to a small town in northern Israel called Deir Al Asad to teach for two weeks in a summer camp for 60 junior high school aged children. Deir … Continue reading →

Posted in Craft in Poetry, Poetry, Poetry Events, Writing Poetry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Article first appeared in Poet’s Quarterly, Summer 2012. I am at no loss for information about you and your family; but I am at a loss where to begin. — Demosthenes Recently, an editor of a well-known journal posted a message … Continue reading →

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Grace Curtis | 3 Comments

Five Lessons from Ohio Poets

Posted on January 26, 2013 by Grace Curtis

Sometimes, “sitting alone in a room and wrenching it out of yourself” as Jon Winokur wrote in the introduction to his book, Advice to Writers, is not enough. So, I jumped at the opportunity to go to the free—did I … Continue reading →

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The Villanelle–A Poem Video

Posted on July 15, 2012 by Grace Curtis

In preparation for the upcoming Midwest Writer’s Workshop, at which I will be privileged to get to work with poet, Kathleen Rooney, I was assigned an article to read on the villanelle form that we will be discussing. I’ve attempted villanelles before with … Continue reading →

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