Poetic Forms: A Virtual Four Week Poetry Workshop with Tresha Faye Haefner
Ever wonder what makes the repeating lines of a villanelle stay with you all day? What makes a ghazal both a love poem and a poem of longing? Why has the sonnet endured for centuries? And how can a pantoum use repetition to keep looking back while still moving forward?
Join Tresha Faye Haefner (pronounced Tree-sha) for a four-week mini-series exploring four of poetry’s most enduring forms: the villanelle, ghazal, sonnet, and pantoum.
Offering a glimpse into what a mini-MFA in poetic form might feel like, each class will explore what makes a particular form distinctive, why it has lasted across centuries and cultures, and how poets can make its constraints work for them. Along the way, participants will sharpen their craft by exploring structure, repetition, rhyme, the volta or “turn,” and the element of surprise.
Each 90-minute online session will combine close reading and discussion of poems with practical writing exercises, giving participants the opportunity to experiment with the form and begin poems of their own.
Come for the full four-week series, or sign up for the individual sessions that interest you most. All poets and writers curious about poetic form are welcome.
SYLLABUS
The Villanelle: How to keep a poem circling
October 6, 20.00 - 21.30
This session will explore the structure of the villanelle. The Poetry Foundation defines this form as, "French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines form the final couplet in the quatrain.” Participants will discuss what makes an effective villanelle and practice writing one.
The Ghazal: The more things change, the more they stay the same
October 13, 20.00 - 21.30
This session will explore the structure and components of the ghazal. The Poetry Foundation explains the ghazal:
"originally an Arabic verse form dealing with loss and romantic love… consisting of syntactically and grammatically complete couplets, the form also has an intricate rhyme scheme. Each couplet ends on the same word or phrase (the radif), and is preceded by the couplet ’s rhyming word (the qafia, which appears twice in the first couplet). The last couplet includes a proper name, often of the poet ’s.”
Participants will explore the rhyme scheme and components of the ghazal and will practice writing one.
The Volta and the Sonnet: What is most essential in structuring a poem?
October 27, 20.00 - 21.30
This session will explore the fourteen-line sonnet. The Poetry Foundation explains: "A 14-line poem with a variable rhyme scheme originating in Italy and brought to England in the 16th century. Literally a “little song,” the sonnet traditionally reflects upon a single sentiment, with a clarification or “turn” of thought in its concluding lines.” Participants will practice rhyme schemes and writing sonnets of their own.
The Pantoum: How to look back and reflect while still moving forward
October 27, 20.00 - 21.30
This session will explore the structure of the pantoum poetic form. The Poetry Foundation explains the pantoum as: "A Malaysian verse form adapted by French poets and occasionally imitated in English. It comprises a series of quatrains, with the second and fourth lines of each quatrain repeated as the first and third lines of the next. The second and fourth lines of the final stanza repeat the first and third lines of the first stanza.”
Participants will explore and practice writing a pantoum.
Till then, please enjoy:
a villanelle from Elizabeth Bishop, One Art, (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/one-art);
a ghazal by Duane Niatum, Ghazal (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/156952/ghazal-61ae6d945dc4b);
a pantoum by Evie Shockley, pantoum, landing 1976 (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55870/pantoum-landing-1976);
and a sonnet, by Anne Marie Rooney, Sonnet (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/150051/sonnet-5cddae4328c4e, and of course from Shakespeare, Sonnet 1 (
https://nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets/1/)
Pricing
Sliding-Scale Member Rates
GWG offers a trust-based sliding scale to ensure equitable access. Participants are encouraged to select the pricing tier that best aligns with their financial circumstances.
Accessible rates support those with limited means, standard rates cover core costs, and pay-it-forward rates help fund subsidized places for others in the community.
Member – Pay It Forward: CHF 120
Member – Standard: CHF 100
Member – Accessible: CHF 85
Non-Member: CHF 150
Individual Session: Members CHF 35 · Non-Members CHF 50
Tresha Faye Haefner is author of When the Moon Had Antlers (Pine Row Press, 2023) and founder of The Poetry Salon and Odd Pocket Press. Her work appears, or is forthcoming in several journals and magazines, most notably Blood Lotus, Blue Mesa Review, The Cincinnati Review, Ecclectica, Five South, Hunger Mountain, Mid-America Review, Pirene’s Fountain, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, Radar, Rattle, TinderBox and Up the Staircase Quarterly. Her work has won the Robert and Adele Schiff Poetry Prize, Pangea Prize and been a finalist for the Glass Lyre Poetry Prize. Find her at www.thepoetrysalonstack.substack.com.
