Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop

Sharpened Visions: A Poetry Workshop is a CalArts course built around the idea that the real work of a poem begins after the first draft. Six modules take up the poetic line, abstraction and image, metaphor and other formulas of difference, rhyme, rhythm, and finally revision strategies. Along the way you read modern and contemporary poets to see how lineation, metaphor and rhythm can be used, and misused, deliberately. Feedback comes through a structured peer workshop in which learners critique each other's poems against rubric criteria.

Coursera estimates the modules at one to two hours each, about eight hours in total, on a flexible timetable, and lists the course at beginner level with no prior experience required; the course FAQ says learners typically spend three to five hours a week. The course is flagged as free, so all modules and the workshop are open without payment. A shareable certificate is a paid option with no price shown, and financial aid is listed.