ENROLL HERE! ** ModPo is a fast-paced introduction to modern and contemporary U.S. poetry, with an emphasis on experimental verse, from Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman to the present. Participants (who need no prior...
Long-time ModPo regular Laura Lippman sent us the ModPo Magic 8-Ball. She wrote to us about the project. Here is what she wrote, in part: I’m a docent at the American Visionary Art Museum,...
During the ModPo team’s visit to Manchester, UK, we gathered together with a panel of poets and discussed Holly Pester’s poem “Hannah Weiner’s Sink.” Here is the poem. And HERE is a short talk...
Here are a few pages from Luke Kennard’s Notes on the Sonnets, in which he recasts Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets as a series of experimental prose poem-responses. HERE is a link to our excerpt.
Dave Poplar was so taken with Al’s audio intro to week 9’s aleatory poetry that — in the spirit of week 9’s playing with alteration, re-making, re-use, and appropriation (it’s the thing of week...
We are please to announce the slate of SloPo mini-courses rostered for winter and spring 2027. HERE is the link for registering. Once you register you should look for any email notes the leader...
This is what they said: The stuff is already there, find it. (Ali)Abandon selfhood immediately. (Gabi)We’re all in this together. (Dave)New sense instead of nonsense. (erica via Joan)Everything is collaboration. (Laynie) Get someone to...
Moore’s “To a Giraffe” was first published in 1924. It is in part a response to her friend T. S. Eliot. She performed it at the 92nd Street Y in New York in 1965....
This poem was written by Bob Perelman probably in 1987. The poem appeared in the literary magazine o·blék and was subsequently selected for The Best American Poetry 1988, edited by David Lehman with John...
The ModPo team traveled to Manchester and recorded a number of new discussions of poems—many of them from the anthology titled The Ground Aslant. These videos will be edited and added to ModPoPLUS in...
This poem was first published in the Partisan Review in 1956 and then appeared in Moore’s book O to Be a Dragon in 1959. Moore read “Values in Use” publicly on October 10, 1957,...
NOTE: All times given are Eastern U.S. Time. Click HERE to watch any of our 2025 webcasts.
Week 1 – Wed 9/2 – noon
Week 2 – Wed 9/9 – 10 AM
Week 3 – Wed 9/16 – 3 PM
Week 4 – Wed 9/23 – noon (w/ Ron Silliman)
Week 5 – Thursday 10/1 (in Manchester) 6:30 local time
Week 6 – Wed 10/7 – 3 PM
Week 7 – Wed 10/14 – 3 PM (w/ Anne Waldman)
Week 8 – Wed 10/21 – noon (w/ Bob Perelmant)
Week 9 – Wed 10/28 – 10 AM
Week 10 – Wed 11/4 – 3 PM (w/ Emily Skillings & Mark Nowak)
Final Words – Monday 11/9 – noon
Yes, you can take ModPo for University of Pennsylvania credit. A 10-week session is offered each year fall. This version of ModPo is taught by ModPo coordinator Laynie Browne. Click HERE for all the info you need. Contact Laynie with questions at modpo@writing.upenn.edu.
ModPo has created a Teacher Resource Center (“TRC“) for teachers who use ModPo poems & videos in their classrooms. Click HERE to read teaching guides and watch videos in which teachers talk about teaching with ModPo. If you wish to be added to our teachers mailing list, write us at modpo@writing.upenn.edu. Click HERE to discuss ModPo poems with other teachers.
