The Pedagogy of Poetry
Perhaps of
all the literary genres, poetry has conventionally been considered
the least “teachable.” This idea seems to travel
hand in glove with the notion that poetry is somehow a higher
form of literary art and that one is either born a poet or
one is not. The born poet is typically a sensitive, ethereal
being, prone to sudden bouts of inspiration and melancholy—a
creature whose gift will not allow her or him to partake in
the ordinary routine of the temporal world. These stereotypes
have not only worked to stultify would-be student poets, but
have also hampered the assistance teachers, similarly tainted,
might otherwise give.
In this issue
of Poet’s Corner,
we are fortunate to feature the work and poetic ruminations
of four teaching poets who challenge the ethereal stereotype
by stabilizing poetry and its pedagogy back in the world.
Monica Woelfel, currently a Washington State artist in residence,
speaks personally and directly about recovering poetry in
the experience of common things in her piece A Poet’s
Vow. Kate Braid, an award-winning poet and instructor at Malaspina University-College,
who for 15 years was a construction carpenter, talks about
integrating life experience into the teaching of poetry. Governor
General’s award winner and Concordia University poetry
professor Stephanie Bolster addresses specific teaching approaches
and methods in Poetry in the Workshop.
She has found that poetry is “unavoidably personal”
and that as a teacher her attention must extend beyond poetry
and into students’ temperaments and learning styles.
Each of these
featured poets share similarities not only in occupation and
gender but also in the fact that each, at one time, has been
an MFA student at the University of British Columbia, and
has studied under the tutelage of present Poet’s Corner
poet in residence George McWhirter. His piece, Creative Writing
Show and Tell, is a lesson plan for poetry teachers, embedded
in a rich history of Creative Writing pedagogy. His “corrective
mantra” for the ethereal abstracted student poet is
“put your thought into things” and he demonstrates how this actually can be done “without
starting the game of literary interpretations.”
All of these
poets have generously offered a sampling of their distinctive
works, an evocation of a mood, a moment, and an emotion.
Desirée
Jung, who was a featured poet in our last issue, graciously
consented to be the guest editor for this issue’s translation
section. Jung is a Brazilian-Canadian who expresses in her
own poetry and its translation the passion and the challenge
of living between two languages.
We are extremely fortunate to be able to
feature the work of contemporary poets and translators in
our translation section. Tony Liman explores poetry in the
prose of Czechoslovakian writer Eva Passerova-Limanova. Diane
Sutherland renders the strong feminist sensibility of poet
and dramatist Ana Istaru.
We are profoundly thankful to Ana Istaru
and Eva Passerova-Limanova, who allowed us to reproduce their
original work free of charge.
