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If you’re looking for a resource that will help you teach or learn about poetry and how to write it, you’ve come to the right place.<\/strong><\/p>\nThis website, created by Maine poet Wesley McNair, features six educational links about poetry. Some are derived from statewide initiatives McNair undertook as the state’s poet laureate. Others are educational projects he has worked on with the help of Colby College Special Collections, where his archive is located, and with Colby College’s ITS Department. All of the links will be especially useful for teachers and students of poetry, and for those who wish to know more about it.<\/strong><\/p>\n Features a series of four videos with tips about how to write old and new kinds of<\/strong><\/em> Visit the website –\u00a0\u00a0Writing Poetry: Written, Spoken, Rapped<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Explores Wesley McNair’s creative process as he wrote his latest book of poems,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>providing a new way to read a volume of poetry. The site includes all poems in the\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>collection, plus an interview with the author about the making of the book, a \u201cmap\u201d of\u00a0<\/strong>the collection’s evolution, links to revisions and audio readings, a video reading by the\u00a0<\/strong>poet of the collection, and a correspondence between McNair and his cover artist in\u00a0<\/strong>which they discuss the book’s themes. Prepared with help from Colby College’s ITS and Special Collections staff, the site is ideal for creative or academic offerings in poetry.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Visit the website –\u00a0The Unfastening: From Manuscript to Book<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n A gathering of 20 short videos in which a diverse group of contemporary Maine poets\u00a0<\/strong>read two poems apiece and explain their beginnings as poets, their influences, and\u00a0<\/strong>their themes. The website includes biographies and ends with a section honoring the\u00a0<\/strong>work of five poets who died during Wesley McNair’s tenure as Maine poet laureate.\u00a0<\/strong>The site derives from \u201cPoets in Performance,\u201d a statewide initiative during McNair’s\u00a0<\/strong>term as poet laureate. Note: This site may also be used as a companion for the study of\u00a0<\/strong>the poems in \u201cTake Heart,\u201d below since the pieces read in the videos come from the Take Heart list.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Visit the website –\u00a020 Maine Poets Read and Discuss Their Work<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n An anthology of Maine poems, old and new, from McNair’s five-year weekly column as\u00a0poet\u00a0laureate. The anthology, assembled online by the Maine Writers Publishers Alliance, includes brief introductions to each of the poems and is ideal for poem-a-day readings, or for oral and written responses to themes such as the adversities and blessings of nature, the variety of Maine’s creatures, families and their conflicts, and love and its limitations. Users can also study poems by the same author. Note: Since the poems read in \u201c20 Maine Poets,\u201d above, are part of the Take Heart lineup, the videos of \u201c20 Poets\u201d can supplement this offering.\u00a0The poems are also available in book form, by way of two Take Heart anthologies from Down East Books<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Visit the website –\u00a0\u00a0Take Heart: A Conversation in Poetry<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Reveals the evolution of poems drawn from several collections by Wesley McNair. The\u00a0<\/strong>development of each poem is shown through three consecutive revisions drawn from\u00a0<\/strong>actual notebooks, so visitors can experience the process of thought and imagination by\u00a0<\/strong>which poems are made. For the convenience of students, the teaching clusters \u2013\u00a0<\/strong>including revisions, the published version, and an audio reading by the poet — are\u00a0<\/strong>available on a single page. Prepared by the Special Collections and ITS staffs at Colby\u00a0<\/strong>College, the site is an effective resource for discussions or assignments about poetry’s\u00a0<\/strong>craft.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\nWriting Poetry: Written, Spoken, Rapped<\/h1>\n
\n poetry. Narrated by a cast of poets who write for the page and for the stage, it includes\u00a0<\/strong>a teacher guide, a wide range of craft helps, and a series of downloadable course\u00a0<\/strong>outlines. The site is hosted by the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance and derives\u00a0<\/strong>from McNair’s statewide initiative called \u201cWritten Word, Spoken Word, and Hip-hop.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>It provides an ideal introduction to the diversity of today’s verse in America, and it’s\u00a0<\/strong>especially effective when used to start a series of poetry workshops.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
\nThe Unfastening: From Manuscript to Book<\/h1>\n
\n20 Maine Poets Read and Discuss Their Work<\/h1>\n
\nTake Heart: A Conversation in Poetry<\/h1>\n
\nLovers of the Lost: Teaching Clusters<\/h1>\n