Writing a Five-Poem Sequence

“Packs didn't work at all or made men breathe so
hard they thought they'd die. Guys that had them
ripped them off. That lightning strike they say made
the mine explode—thunder like grenades, lightning
so bright it lit the sky like August noon though night
was black. I just laid down, finished my shift at the mine.”

-excerpt from Coal by Susan Shaw Sailer

In the course Writing a Five-Poem Sequence, instructor Susan Shaw Sailer will help the participants understand the process of this style of poetry. They will learn about linking through such devices as repeating lines. And how to develop the topic of the poem into greater depth through chronological development or psychologic association.

Susan Shaw Sailer poems have appeared in such venues as Persimmon Tree, Kestrel, and THEMA. Coal, her chapbook, was published by Finishing Line Press in 2012, and Ship of Light was published by Port Yonder Press in 2013. In 2016 Word Poetry will bring out her book, The God of Roundabouts.