All the poems of our lives are not yet made.We hear them crying to us, the wounds, the young and the unborn — we will define that peace, we will live to fight its birth, to build these meanings, to sing these songs.
-Muriel Rykeyser, The Life of Poetry
See classes below, and email me (addoniziokim@gmail.com) if you’d like a spot; classes are filling fast.
5-day intensive * Make a Book * Love Poems
POETIC STRUCTURE & SURPRISE: THE TURNINGS
Jan 5--9, Live on Zoom, 9am--11:30am Pacific Time
This class won’t just inspire you to write—it will also help you shape your poems in order to release the power and energy of your vision. Sure, our poems need heart, mind, fresh metaphors, precise language, ravishing imagery—but they also need structure. How can you shape a poem about events in the past? What are the possibilities of elegy? How do you avoid getting stuck in mere description? We’ll explore a few ways that poems can proceed, and we’ll jump off from discussing some examples to writing our own. We’ll talk about the concept of the turn, and study how poems move so they aren’t only one note, but also take us somewhere new and surprise us. This will be a combination of lecture/discussion and in-class writing that will inspire new work and give you ways to approach new drafts as well as revision. You’ll finish this intensive session with some new drafts, as well as useful tools to help you shape your material. $500.
Monday The Turn
Tues Concessional Structure, Emblem Structure
Wed Epiphany and Circular Structure
Thurs Elegy
Fri Retrospective and Dejection-Elation
MAKE A BOOK Sunday Jan 18, 9-11:30am (Pacific Time) on Zoom
We'll look at ways other writers have organized their books, discuss various strategies for ourselves, consider chapbooks vs. full-length collections, readiness, persistence, and more. $150.
LOVE POEMS Sunday Feb 1, 9--11am (Pacific Time)/ noon-2pm (East Coast),on Zoom, Hudson Valley Writers Center (Contact them at link below to sign up)
May 2026: luxury in mexico!
Join me for an intimate writing retreat at a villa in Cabo San Lucas.
https://www.cabopoetryconference.com
Limited to 12 poets
Details are still being worked out, but here’s what’s included:
Luxury accommodations in a 6-star oceanfront villa
Daily critique workshops and generative prompts
One-on-one sessions
Transfers to/from San Jose Del Cabo Airport
Breakfast and lunch
Welcome dinner
Yoga classes
Guided Walks
Tequila Tasting
Sunset Cruise
I’ll be co-teaching with Tracey Knapp, author of two fine poetry collections: Mouth and the forthcoming Swerve. Tracey and I taught together at the La Romita School in Italy in 2024. You’ll receive feedback from both of us in every workshop. This is a combination writing retreat and luxury vacation—far from La Romita, where we gathered in a former monastery!—but our commitment as poets and teachers is the same: serious, careful, and personal attention to your work, whatever your level of skill or publication. Again, details are still being worked out, but feel free to email me for more information as the program develops. We’re looking forward to a magical, creative time in a drop-dead gorgeous location.
BOOks for Poets
FINGER EXERCISES FOR POETS, Dorianne Laux (W.W. Norton)
ORDINARY GENIUS: A GUIDE FOR THE POET WITHIN, Kim Addonizio (W.W. Norton)
THE POET'S COMPANION: A GUIDE TO THE PLEASURES OF WRITING POETRY, Kim Addonizio & Dorianne Laux (W.W. Norton)
IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND: THE POET'S PORTABLE WORKSHOP, Steve Kowit (Tilbury House)
WHY POETRY, Matthew Zapruder (Ecco)
BEST WORDS, BEST ORDER, Stephen Dobyns (St. Martin's)
STRUCTURE AND SURPRISE :ENGAGING POETIC TURNS, ed. Michael Theune (Teachers & Writers)
POETIC METER & POETIC FORM, Paul Fussell (McGraw Hill)
TEXT BOOK: AN INTRODUCTION TO LITERARY LANGUAGE, Robert Scholes, Nancy Comley, Greg Ulmer er (St. Martin's
