Poets can't impose their will on the muse. That's why it's so important that you write regularly, keep reworking your drafts, and experiment in your writing. This book will help you by offering advice, inspiration, and hundreds of exercises to get you going—all designed to invoke your muse. With no bias toward any form or style, John Drury addresses imagery, metaphor, and the different methods of constructing and experimenting with new poetic forms. You'll find twelve chapters overflowing with examples, exercises, and prompts—all practical tools you can use right now in your poetry writing. For example, you'll find information on: Preparing: developing your poetic sensitivity Language: learning the fundamental tools of poetry and using them effectively Sight: refining sight—and insight—to make your poetry come alive within the mind's eye—and the heart's eye, too Sound: sensitizing yourself to the music of words—both singly and in combination Movement: developing the rhythmic qualities that make poems sing—and shout, march, croon, and whisper Voice: becoming aware of the fine nuances of how the words are said and connected, revealing each poem's implied speaker and "stance" Finishing: bringing each poem to successful completion No matter what your style or level of experience, Creating Poetry offers insightful, thoughtful, and motivating instruction all of which will make your path to poetry writing a richer path to travel.

Introduces the different kinds of poetry and the mechanics of writing poetry, providing an opportunity for the reader to experience the joy of making a poem.

How to begin a poem, use word combinations and new forms, apply the lessons from master poets to individual poems, choose and use images and words carefully, and much more.

An award-winning poet and anthologist provides a versatile guide for young readers and offers concrete advice that will help them express themselves through poetry.

An impassioned call for a return to reading poetry and an incisive argument for poetry’s accessibility to all readers, by critically acclaimed poet Matthew Zapruder In Why Poetry, award-winning poet Matthew Zapruder takes on what it is that poetry—and poetry alone—can do. Zapruder argues that the way we have been taught to read poetry is the very thing that prevents us from enjoying it. In lively, lilting prose, he shows us how that misunderstanding interferes with our direct experience of poetry and creates the sense of confusion or inadequacy that many of us feel when faced with it. Zapruder explores what poems are, and how we can read them, so that we can, as Whitman wrote, “possess the origin of all poems,” without the aid of any teacher or expert. Most important, he asks how reading poetry can help us to lead our lives with greater meaning and purpose. Anchored in poetic analysis and steered through Zapruder’s personal experience of coming to the form, Why Poetry is engaging and conversational, even as it makes a passionate argument for the necessity of poetry in an age when information is constantly being mistaken for knowledge. While he provides a simple reading method for approaching poems and illuminates concepts like associative movement, metaphor, and negative capability, Zapruder explicitly confronts the obstacles that readers face when they encounter poetry to show us that poetry can be read, and enjoyed, by anyone.

Explores various themes such as 'Capturing Animals', 'Wind and Weather' and 'Writing about People'. This book encourages children to think and write for themselves via a discussion of the poems.

In this expanded and updated volume, Samuel Maio is definitive and comprehensive in his discussion of American personal poetry. While broadening the concept of persona to include the first-person speaker, he analyses representative poets categorised by the aesthetics of voice, demonstrating these poets' far-reaching influence into the 21st century.

Where you between Betty Crocker and Gloria Steinem? With that question in mind poets Pamela Gemin and Paula Sergi began collecting the poems in Boomer Girls, an anthology of coming-of-age poems written by women born between 1945 and 1964, give or take a few years on either side. The answers to that question till this volume with the energy, passion, heartbreak, and giddiness of women's lives from childhood to adolescence to middle age. The poems in Boomer Girls are by unknown, emerging, and established writers, women who participated in the second wave of feminism. From Sandra Cisneros' "My Wicked Wicked Ways" to Barbara Crooker's "Nearing Menopause, I Run into Elvis at Shoprite, " from Wendy Mnookin's "Polio Summer" to Kyoko Mori's "Barbie Says Math Is Hard, " these poems call for us to celebrate (in the words of poet Diane Seuss-Brakeman) "glances, romances, beauty and guilt, regret, remorse, rebates and rejuvenations." Boomer Girls share a common culture, bound by their generation's political history by pop icons like Barbie -- that pedestaled Boomer Girl who's just turned forty -- and by the music that's never stopped playing: Janis Joplin, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, the Ronettes, Van Morrison, Patsy Cline, John Lennon. The Boomer poets in this feisty anthology speak with diverse voices and embody a wide range of experiences, yet their generation's universal images -- the hula hoops, TV shows, tinned auto-mobiles, and other household gods of their youth -- unite them in ways both hilarious and tender.

A great photograph has the potential to transcend verbal and written language. But how do you create these photographs? It’s not the how that’s important, but the who and the what. Who you are as a person has a direct impact on what you capture as a photographer. Whether you are an amateur or professional, architect or acupuncturist, physician or photographer, this guide provides inspiration, simple techniques, and assignments to boost your creative process and improve your digital images using natural light without additional gear. Chris Orwig’s insights—to reduce and simplify, participate rather than critique, and capture a story—have made him an immensely popular workshop speaker and faculty member at the prestigious Brooks Institute. His engaging stories presented as lessons follow his classroom approach and highlight what students say is his contagious passion for life. In this accessible and beautifully illustrated four-color guide you will: Discover visual poetry in the creative process Use less to say more with your subject matter Learn to see light, color, shape, and expression Understand what gear is essential Create compelling portraits Make lasting memories of your family and kids Capture the outdoors and adventure Begin the transition from amateur to professional Chris also includes exclusive interviews with such photographers as: Steve McCurry, Chris Rainier, John Sexton, Rodney Smith, Joyce Tenneson, John Paul Caponigro, Marc Riboud, and Pete Turner. Share your work with the author and other readers at www.flickr.com/groups/visual-poet and visit the Web site: www.visual-poet.com.

Marty McConnell offers start-to-finish instructions along with a grounding in the Gathering Voices approach for both aspiring and seasoned facilitators who want to establish or invigorate a poetry learning environment for workshops in the community and the class room. Gathering Voices includes: Poetry from some of the most exciting poets writing today including Ada Limón, Patricia Smith, Jamaal May, Keetje Kuipers, Ocean Vuong, Rachel McKibbins, and so many more! Tailored discussion questions for each poem. Innovative and interactive writing prompts for twenty-four complete three-hour workshops. Guidelines for leading discussions of participants' work. Strategies for marketing your workshop, creating a schedule, maintaining boundaries and more.