"Because of the fragile nature of the pouch"

Perillo, Kamfer, Ruefle, Gelman, Issa

Upcoming Class!

How to End Poems

The sense and music of poem have to culminate somehow. The energy that you’ve put into the inert words has to go somewhere. Where does it go? does it dissipate, open up, shut down, close, or summarize? Does the speaker undergo some kind of transformation?

There are as many ways to end poems are there are poets. Some poets feel the temptation to neatly tie together the feelings in a poem, like a bow on a present. Other poems might end with some sort of imperative or command, as if the wisdom of the speaker overtakes the end. Still, there are some methodical ways of thinking about different kinds of endings.

This class will offer participants increased capacity to understand types of endings, to closely read examples, and to have a stronger command over what kinds of endings work best for specific meanings.

2/27/25, 7-8:30 pm (EST)

$100

Register here

---

About Sean Singer 

Sean Singer Poetry

Sean Singer Editorial Services

---

Subscribe to The Sharpener

The paid-subscriber version of The Sharpener includes weekly installments of craft pieces, approaches to writing problems, topics in contemporary publishing for writers, and biographical features on poets I consider important.

---

Lucia Perillo:

Ronelda Kamfer (tr. from Akrikaans by Robert Dorsman):

Mary Ruefle:

Juan Gelman (tr. from Spanish by Hardie St. Martin):

Kobayashi Issa (tr. from Japanese by R.H. Blyth):

Fats Navarro, “Ice Freezes Red,” rec. January 29, 1947:

---