If one looks up the nomenclature, Documentary Poetics, one quickly learns there is much interest and debate surrounding the term: What is the difference between Poetry of Witness and Documentary Poetics? Does Documentary Poetics inherently contain a political narrative or position? Titles and debates aside, the idea of using a third point of reference in the construction of a poem is worth investigating. In fact, it is something that poets have been investigating for a long, long time. In our time together we will read works by William Carlos Williams, Muriel Rukeyser, Roberto Bolaño, C.D. Wright, Jena Osman and Mark Nowak, among others, to investigate this approach to writing poems and using primary source material attempt our hand at writing our own.