Excerpt from Foreword by Cristofer C. Lentsch

  

          Games Poets Play is a collection of poems written by student poets in response to the Ongoing Poetry Game started in September 2016 by James Ritter, a mentor for Modpo ( Modern And Contemporary American Poetry, a MOOC from University of Pennsylvania offered on the Coursera platform). A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course. Each week 10 words are offered to use in an original poem. The winner with the most votes each week provides the 10 words for the following week, and so it continues.

            Modpo is the brainchild of Al Filreis. Tens of thousands of people from all over the world engage in Modpo each year. There is a ten week “symposium mode” during which students read poems, watch video discussions (close readings) of the poems, take quizzes, write essays and discuss the poems, poets and poetry movements on the discussion forums. Modpo is open all year (called “Slopo”) for mini-courses, discussions on the forums, study groups and meet-ups.