What makes a poem political, and what makes a political poem good? Is it harder or easier, in the current American political climate to write political poetry? Can poems change anything in the world anyway? What are political poems for? This workshop aims to help you find formats and strategies to write good, effective political poems, working especially where political and personal materials intersect. We’ll read and discuss poems old and contemporary, in English and in translation (readings could include Eleanor Wilner, Nazim Hikmet, Layli Long Soldier, Terrance Hayes, Colette Bryce, EE Cummings, Reginald Dwayne Betts, Jill McDonough, Charles Bernstein, Wislawa Szymborska, Frederick Seidel, Liu Xiaobo). And you will generate (to prompts, for those who want them) at least four new poems—one per week—and receive frank, supportive feedback on all of them.