The Intimate Art of Writing Poetry

Book excerpt: Here is a comprehensive but personal poetry-writing guide that combines essential "how to" information with the intellectual and emotional stimulation needed to produce the proper environment for writing creatively. In these pages you'll discover unique methods that can help get a new writer started or remove an experienced poet's creative "block." You'll find suggestions that explain how you can produce effective self-criticism and make necessary revisions, along with methods that elicit valuable appraisal of your poetry from group discussions. And you'll find scores of examples from traditional poems to contemporary experiments that provide a historical as well as a technical framework within which you can strengthen your ability to create poetry. Finally, this unique handbook gives you a complete list of suggested readings and poetry recordings in addition to important information that reveals the most effective ways to submit your poetry to editors for publication.