I signed up for what I thought was a short fiction workshop at a local reading/writing nonprofit. And I guess it is a short fiction class, sort of, but the first class was concerned with poetry, prose poems, and intellectual arguments along those lines. My assignment this week is to write a poem. (And a prose poem, both on the same subject matter of my choosing.)

I have never written a poem, but I’m hoping the discovery and study of contemporary poetry and prose poetry will appeal to me, as I am notoriously bad at the traditional fiction and short-story devices such as, oh, plot, dialogue, and, well, finishing the damn thing. This partly explains my failure to complete an MFA, though also I ran out of money, in my defense.

Economy of language I can get behind, but so far I know not a thing about poetry and I am terrified, absolutely petrified, of writing a poem.

Don’t worry, I won’t assault you with my lame first attempts. I won’t assault you at all. Not with poetry, anyway.

ETA: Well, if you’re really interested, you can read my progress (a poem a day so far) here, at my new blog for these things.