2008 Woodie Awards
Visiting professor teaches a thing or two about poetry
Ryan Young
Issue date: 5/3/08 Section: Arts
In the few hours between day classes and night classes, when most students have already left for home, a collection of unlikely onlookers peppered into the seats of LCCC's Stocker Center classroom 217 for April 10th's master class in poetry.
That afternoon, distinguished poet, J. Allyn Rosser, stood before her "students" some teachers themselves, and proceeded to share her perspective on poetry and the use of unusual words to convey all too usual emotions.
Her body of work lent a poignant credence to her opinions. Her past books, Misery Prefigured, and Bright Moves, both important steps in Rosser's career, provided a strong base for her newest book Foiled Again, which won the 2007 New Criterion Poetry Prize.
She first invited students to list some vivid adjectives and verbs as well as subjects, and nouns. She even tried to explain the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs; a concept that has baffled mankind since perhaps the beginning of time.
Later, after some examination of a few hand selected poet excerpts, students were allowed to fill in a mad-libs style poem and share their results with the class. While some adhered strictly to the rules and used only their original words, others entered new words.
Rosser explained that this was not cheating, but rather just a way of trying to rationalize. Her point, after all, was that sometimes putting words together in a way that they normally would not appear can translate into art, and may even be the secret to turning a good poem into a great one.
Rosser is currently a professor at Ohio University
That afternoon, distinguished poet, J. Allyn Rosser, stood before her "students" some teachers themselves, and proceeded to share her perspective on poetry and the use of unusual words to convey all too usual emotions.
Her body of work lent a poignant credence to her opinions. Her past books, Misery Prefigured, and Bright Moves, both important steps in Rosser's career, provided a strong base for her newest book Foiled Again, which won the 2007 New Criterion Poetry Prize.
She first invited students to list some vivid adjectives and verbs as well as subjects, and nouns. She even tried to explain the difference between transitive and intransitive verbs; a concept that has baffled mankind since perhaps the beginning of time.
Later, after some examination of a few hand selected poet excerpts, students were allowed to fill in a mad-libs style poem and share their results with the class. While some adhered strictly to the rules and used only their original words, others entered new words.
Rosser explained that this was not cheating, but rather just a way of trying to rationalize. Her point, after all, was that sometimes putting words together in a way that they normally would not appear can translate into art, and may even be the secret to turning a good poem into a great one.
Rosser is currently a professor at Ohio University
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