Part of the weekly Milk Press Virtual Workshop series, produced by the Poetry Society of New York.With guest instructor Faith Padgett.In this course, we will explore the use of color as a tool in three poems by several U.S. Poet Laureates (William Carlos Williams, Ada Limón, Charles Wright, Joy Harjo) to inform our creation of color-wheels, which will then provide each of us with a catalyst for generating new writing. First, we will read the poems and talk about their techniques. We will investigate by asking: how does color carry layers of meaning and why is color such a ubiquitous tool in the poems of U.S. Poet Laureates, in some of the most awarded and celebrated poetry in this tradition? Then, I will guide you through a multi-step writing exercise that asks you to recount memories with the primary colors in them (Red, Yellow, Blue), list language for those memories, and then distill that language into a color wheel. Once we complete our wheels, we will use them to draft a piece that uses color to make layers of meaning. Following this course, students will have the opportunity to repeat and tweak the exercises offered, to expand their color wheels, and to use different language-acquisition strategies to pair color and words. These exercises are intentionally designed to be personalized and played with after class concludes, so you can keep generating new work after our time together. **This workshop will take place on Zoom.**