Generative poetry writing course at Senior College
As Coastal Senior College (CSC) continues to expand its role in the active lifelong learning community in Lincoln and Knox counties and beyond, the College kicks off the winter 2026 semester on Jan. 13 with a varied collection of four- to six- session courses, both in person in a variety of settings and on Zoom.
Registration for all courses opened on Dec. 16 and reservations are high to date with eight of the 11 courses offered remotely on Zoom avoiding winter travel.
Poet and longtime CSC instructor Carol Willette Bachofner has designed a special course for curious wordsmiths titled “Let’s Repeat Ourselves: Poems with Lines We Love.”
Bachofner is a poet, photographer, and watercolorist. She served as Poet Laureate of Rockland, Maine from 2012–2016. She is the author of seven books of poetry. Carol’s latest book, “Every Place I Look, Women With Embers at Their Feet” (Main Street Rag Publishing), will be published in late fall of 2025.
Her poetry has appeared in numerous journals, such as Cafe Review, Prairie Schooner, The Connecticut Review, The Comstock Review, Cream City Review, as well as in the following anthologies, Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Writings from Indigenous New England (University of Nebraska Press, 2013); Enough! (Littoral Books 2020); and Wait (Littoral Books 2021).
Bachofner promises the course will be “a generative poetry experience focusing on three forms that employ repeating lines: villanelle, pantoum, and triolet. All three forms use repeating lines in different ways.”
In four, two-hour Zoom sessions on Tuesday afternoons beginning Jan. 13, she will guide students through understanding and then practicing this special poetic form. Informative printed materials will augment the course.
Information about CSC and registration for the winter courses may be found at coastalseniorcollege.org.

