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All responses are anonymous. Responses will be shared in aggregate with the rest of the class. Please answer honestly, in as much detail as you feel would be beneficial for our data gathering purposes.

In the pre-survey this week, you reflected on what you thought poetry "is and/or does." After having spent this week with poetry (reading, writing, listening, and reading about poetry/cognition), how do you think your understanding of poetry has changed?

In the article titled "This Is What Happens to Your Brain When You Read Poetry," the author describes a study of the neurological
and physiological reactions of people reading poetry--including "pre-chills" and then visible chills,
usually around various closing positions within the poem. This seems to suggest visceral pleasure connected to
moments of revelation. Research Keith Holyoak, too, in "Poetry on the Mind and in the Brain," writes about the

function of poetry in expanding the conscious and unconscious mind in almost enchanting ways.

What do you think about the ways in which poetry can create "relevation," help readers "get" something existential

or cosmic, etc.?

Research tells us that neurologically, every word or concept we learn, every experience or thought we have, creates connections that then allow for new connections. In other words, there are things you will think next week that you physically cannot think today. Can you identify or speculate on new things you are or have been thinking this week because of your time spent in this poetic material?

As you review your own notes, observing your reading and writing for the week, what stands out to you about *how* you were processing poetry (as reader and author)?

Any other thoughts you think we ought to capture in connection with our poetry week, before we launch into our next essays on literacy and cognition?