Over the years, I’ve developed a long list of approaches and experiments that have helped me generate poems (and novels) and also helped me think differently. Most of these experiments (or constraints) engage autobiographical material (the self extending into the world) while at the same time disrupting or redirecting an easy chronology. Some of the assignments will include: walking/writing meditation, sequential quilting, prose sestinas, research/layering, a line an hour, thinking the opposite, etc. The class will function as a workshop; we will read and discuss your writing. We will also spend part of the time considering writing by others, such as: Matsuo Basho, Harry Mathews, Jack Kerouac, Harryette Mullen, William Carlos Williams, Helene Cixous, Bill Kushner, Bernadette Mayer, and Ed Sanders.