How do poets come up with questions in their work that feel both necessary and unexpected? Wisława Szymborska’s advice is to embrace the attitude of “I don’t know.” This approach allows you to both question a poem, and make discoveries that can enhance its emotional resonance and drive. In this workshop, we’ll sample a variety of poems that use questions in service to volta, tone, tension, surprise, or form. Through exercises, participants will put one or more questions to work in draft poems, and discover how a poem full of questions can yield surprise and mystery.
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JANE C. MILLER is the author of Canticle for Remnant Days (2024) and coauthor of Walking the Sunken Boards (2019). A recipient of the Naugatuck River Review Narrative Poetry Contest award and two Delaware Division of the Arts fellowships, her work has appeared in numerous journals including RHINO, Colorado Review, Whale Road Review and on buses through the Luzerne County, PA Poetry in Transit program. Miller coedits the online poetry journal, ൪uartet and lives in Wilmington, DE with her dog, son and husband. www.janecmiller.com.