How do lineation choices help poets achieve potent effects? Using the work of Joy Harjo, Jericho Brown, Lorine Niedecker, W.S. Merwin, Ruth Stone, and others, as an example, we will explore how poets use the poetic line to add layers of meaning to their work. The poet’s lineation choices build tension and emotion. As we uncover how the poet used the tools of lineation, we will uncover the meaning of their work. In this workshop, we’ll attune ourselves to possibilities in lineation to build emotional resonance, enhance meaning, and delight readers. We will discover how poetry connects to the reader using the visual lines on the page.

There is a direct correlation between lineation and the author’s humanity (individual and cultural). Lineation choices have roots in traditional forms, and these forms’ effects are still present in contemporary poetry. Poems with very short lines echo song traditions—the lyric impulse. Short-lined poems may be meditative or, at times, express disruption. Longer lines have roots in epic traditions in which the poetic line carries the story.

Contemporary poets echo traditional forms while also breaking from them in their poems’ lineation. For example, Joy Harjo’s long lines combine jazz rhythms with speech patterns from her indigenous culture. Lorine Neidecker’s short lines, on the other hand, express an intense focus on the natural world—a focus that may have been augmented by her difficult life circumstances. In both cases, lineation supports the expression of the writer’s unique voice and lived experiences.

RADHA MARCUM’s work is rooted in ecological, social, and personal landscapes of the American West. Her poetry collection, Bloodline, received the 2018 New Mexico Book Award in Poetry, and her poems appear widely in journals, including Pleiades, Gulf Coast, FIELD, West Branch, Bennington Review, and Poetry Northwest, among others. Radha lives in Colorado where she writes the “Poet to Poet” newsletter (poettopoet.substack.com) and teaches at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop

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