This workshop will examine the lyric poem from the point of view of the speaker— the voice that sings or cries or whispers in the reader’s ear. In it we will learn how to create a fully-realized lyric voice, layer by layer, as in the proverbial onion. Guided by examples from Yusef Komunakaa to Gary Snyder, Coleridge to Elizabeth Bishop, we will explore the physical, psychological and chronological spaces the poetic voice must navigate. Class-time will be devoted primarily to workshopping student work—both assigned poems, written from one day to the next, and at least one poem you bring with you to Palm Beach. So bring copies of that poem to our first workshop session, and be ready for a great week of reading, writing and talking poetry.