Through a keen sense of observation and an ardent pulse to translate nature’s language, you’ll learn what nature poetry can be —how to illuminate its terrors and stark realities, its deep-sea baubles, prairie grass-swish, and northern-light delights. Through carefully crafted examinations of poems that showcase the environment in dynamic and surprising ways, and through various immersions in writing (some outdoors, weather permitting), we’ll explore/explode forms of poetry to record your own observations about landscape and the environment–forms that are sure to keep you going long after this class ends. The second half of workshop will involve constructive critique of student poems. Participants will send 2-3 poems in advance of the workshop and bring copies of those poems to the first session.