Magpies are thieves, stealing bits of ribbon, chaff, and any sparkly stuff they can get a hold of to build their nests. Poets are also thieves, only we steal bits of text, snatches of overheard conversations, recipes, obscure facts, fortune cookie predictions and headlines to build our poems. We are the great democrats of the literary system.

Not everyone can complete a novel or a play but anyone--a three-year-old child, an Alzheimer's patient--can make a poem out of the mess and glory of daily life. I will bring in a bunch of clippings, ideas, astrology forecasts, quotes, lines from other poems, and writing prompts. We will play with arranging them, collage-style, drawing on them, using them as springboards, and sandwiching them in between our own stanzas to create glorious and unexpected poems. We will have time for lecture, discussion, play, and writing.

This class is for all skill levels, and I believe all writers, whether fiction, non-fiction or dramatists, can benefit from playing around with poetry. It opens the mind, refreshes the senses, and restores the soul.