The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry
If you want to improve your writing skills, die die you must get your hands on this book! I bought my copy last month @Kinokuniya, worth every single cent. I will be sharing some of the poems and advices from this book in my future postings.
---> Media: Paperback
---> Author: Kim Addonizio, Dorianne Laux
---> Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
---> Release date: 20 October, 1997
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Comments from other readers
For adult writers...
Although I don't doubt this is a great book for writing poetry- I thought I would mention that it is for adults. I read the reviews and ordered the book for my 14 year old who loves to write poetry- thinking the reviews made it sound perfect. The content does include adult topics, sexual language, and some language. Just thought others may find this helpful to know. I sent it back, as it was not appropriate for my daughter
The best there is...
I have read a large number of poetry textbooks, workbooks, courses, and reference books, and this book is the best I have ever read on the subject. It was clearly written, with a lot of useful information, and truly great exercises.
Almost Stopped Before I Started: So Glad I Didn't!
I almost ruled out reading this book when I read the author's (to me) bold statement on page 225: "Can you write a poem in 20 minutes? We seriously doubt it."
Being, at times, a very fast poet, I *gasped* when I read that assertion! (Don't ask me how I got to page 225 before I read the rest of the book but nonetheless, it stuck out to me!)
I kept at it, though, and found my way through the original assessment and into many of the glorious exercises, the truth in words that I so resonate with such as "We don't believe in writer's block. We believe there are times when you are empty and times when you are full."
The section on Metrical poetry is truly magical - I enjoyed learning about how Free-Verse as a form blossomed as well.
There are also many, many valuable resources in the appendices such as Books on Poetry and Writing, Finding Markets for Your Poetry and More Resources for Writers.
Finally, this book is chock full of exercises so that you can continue picking it up and revisit, use, revisit, use some more, revisit over and over again. Definitely worth the investment AND I am so glad I didn't toss it all because of one difference in opinion.
5 comments:
Well then, I must go find this book too. I could really use something like this. :) Thanks for the recommendation.
Hey Liz,
You won’t regret your decision. In fact, I believe you are going to love this book.
By the way if you have the time, do check out Poetry Free-for-all (there is a link in this blog) Read the threads in Blurbs of Wisdom, they give great advice. It is not a bad place but in my opinion a bit too harsh. If you are not ready better don’t post any poems there, and remember to read the posting guidelines.
Cheers.
I will buy this book, and start learning how to write poems (inspired by you and Mr Wang)...
Can't wait to read your first poem. :)
Thx for the tip. Appears to be a luscious book from your description. I have a book gift card. Uh, often I write poetry very fast, even the very long poem "Passages" on my site was written and typed (I also type fast) in 1/2 hr........
My current poem was completed in 5 min. However, that said, there are several poems where most of the poetry tumbles forth quickly, but there are places I need to fine tune, that mean I revisit the poem later and spend more time.
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