The contemporary practice of poetry is a field of often contradictory discourses– what does it mean to write the post-modern lyric which is open to a wide variety of social discourses? How can poetry deal with politics and hidden histories, or speak for others? This course will help students contextualise linguistically adventurous poetry in relation to other media, like image and sound. Writers will aim to complete a chapbook and to develop a writer’s diary in the form of a literary-critical blog. The course will explore how poets solve technical and ethical problems. Other issues include form (traditional genres, and as an open process of construction), voice and register, affect, and creative paraphrase. These issues will be discussed and explored through reading critical essays on poetics and workshopping poems.