BFA Poetry Craft Class: The Art of Attention

Course Description

Summary

Simone Weil wrote,  “Attention in its highest form is the same thing as prayer.” In this craft course, we will explore attention as the fundamental liberators' medium of all art, and specifically, as the receptive foundation of poetry. By studying the mutually illuminating correspondence between poetry and prayer, we will pursue what the language of our highest attention looks like, supported by contemplative practices. Furthermore, in our so-called attention economy, realizing our attention be our most precious and exploited resource, we will consider poetry as an individual and collective refuge and poetry-making as a political form of attention activism and liberation.

We will read poems and prose by Paul Celan, Alfred Starr Hamilton, St. John of the Cross, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Sun Buer, Izumi Shikibu, Simone Weil, and Gertrude Stein, among others. Students will keep a practice journal for weekly writings and reflection, culminating in first a midterm and then a final poetry project and reflection.

This course is designed for the BFA Conservatory for Creative Writing, but is open to all Bennington students with permission of the instructor.