In this workshop we will focus on the importance of specificity in writing—the particulars, the images, the exacting figurative gestures that provide the fuel for gripping poetry. Participants will bring poems in various stages of development for review and suggestions for improvement along these lines. In addition to these close readings and critiques, some time will be dedicated to short in-class writing exercises to help each of us break out of well-worn writing routines and strategies. We will work on short poems, narrative poems, dream poems, surrealist poems, and persona poems—poems written in a voice other than the author’s own. Such work will allow us to add color and some new shades to our writerly palettes. Participants will send 3-4 poems in advance of the workshop and bring copies for distribution to the first class meeting.