The Checklist

I, like so many of us, have found myself extremely frustrated with the workshop checklist. I find that there is so much I would like to be able to say to everyone about their poems, but find myself unable to do so because I am so rigidly confined by specific guidelines. Firstly, not all the checklist questions apply to every poem we read. I remember specifically trying to go through the checklist for a five line poem during the last workshopping assignment. Although I definitely think that a poem has a lot you can delve into regardless of its length, it was hard for me to answer questions like what the “governing metaphor” or “argument” of the piece was. The poem was obviously meant to highlight a very specific moment, intense even in its simplicity – and, yes, maybe that concept in itself a governing idea, but still, it strikes me as self-explanatory. In short, there were other things I could have been spending my time writing about to provide the poem’s author with feedback. I could have discussed how the poem might be expanded, or about how I felt regarding specific word choice. I know that the workshop also gives me chances to elaborate on these points, but even so, I find myself too often not having the time to say as much as I would like.

As Kathleen mentioned in her post, I think the checklist is definitely a good starting point if someone has no idea how to begin providing feedback; still, I believe other viable options for providing constructive critique would be a worthwhile discussion to have during class.