Writing Poems

Book Description

This book offers comprehensive coverage of the creative process and the technical aspects of writing poetry. Filled with practical advice and numerous examples, Writing Poems is appropriate for both the beginning and advanced poet. Its anthology of classic and contemporary poems enlivens its readers' understanding of poetry, illustrates poetic principles, and, above all, inspires writing. With clear explanations, a lively presentation, and in-depth discussions, this book demystifies the process of writing poems and provides the guidance needed to help writers improve their craft. For anyone interested in writing poetry

Customer Reviews:

Powerful Creative Writing Text for Poets.......2003-09-02

WRITING POEMS by Michelle Boisseau and Robert Wallace, 6th ed., offers clear advice, appropriate examples, and stimulating suggestions for creating poems. I recommend this text to advanced poetry students who have had at least one semester of creative writing. R. S. Gwynn's Poetry: A Harper Collins Pocket Anthology would complement this text in a junior-level college poetry writing course.

If you want to read a text on writing poetry, this is it.......2000-10-17

I took an advanced poetry course from Michelle Boiseeau who taught from this text. She was enlightening, helpful, and inspiring. The book was more so.

I re-read the book after taking the course and found it even more helpful in reflecting on the course.

Michelle Boisseau is one of our most talented and hard-working poets. Her approach is as clearly revealed in this book as any poet could hope to impart.

Don't read this book expecting to come out a poet, but read this book and plan on learning a great deal about the process of writing poetry.

Seek an earlier edition.......2000-09-23

I have a previous edition of this book which I've really enjoyed, but something seems to have washed out of this current offering. The book is dedicated to Robert Wallace, who died during the compilation of edition #4, and I'm wondering if the book didn't go to press in a daze. This edition seems slicker, perkier, and less succinct than it's siblings. Still useful and nutritious but in that low-salt, high-fiber way that I don't want my poems or books about poems to have. My suggestion is to try an earlier edition.

In my daydreams, every poet has read this book (edition #2 I can vouch for), as well as the books "Western Wind" and "In the Palm of Your Hand" and gorgeous, flexing poems are lying about everywhere. It could happen.

Do Not Buy This Book If You Want To Be A Poet.......2000-06-03

This is the WORST textbook I have ever read, from its simple- and literal- minded deconstructions of great poems soiled by the dim illuminations of them, to its muddled explanations of prosody and poetics. There are far better books out there for the aspiring poet. Try "Writing Poetry" by Barbara Drake; "The Art of Poetry Writing" and "The Poet's Dictionary" by William Packard; "The Book of Forms" by Lewis Turco; "Thirteen Ways Of Looking For A Poem" by Wendy Bishop; and before all these others you must read "Letters To A Young Poet" by Rilke (translated by Herter Norton).

This book is like an MFA program in poetry in 410 pages........1999-04-16

I have taught this book in its various editions in the Writers' Program at UCLA for many years. It is simply the best textbook I have ever found to demystify poetry and inspire would-be poets. Not only is the text clear, cogent and lively, but the examples of poetry used -- from Sharon Olds' "Sex Without Love" and Norman Dubie's "A Blue Hog", to Yusef Komunyakaa's "Sunday Afternoons" and Richard Wilbur's "Love Calls Us to the Things of the World" (plus classics such as W.C. Williams' "The Red Wheelbarrow" and Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken") -- are uniformly first rate. If you want to learn how to write poetry well and do not live near an urban writing center, you can do no better than to buy this book.

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Average customer rating:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers
Pants on fire?
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
Very Interesting
History as Science Fiction

History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Chinese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Irish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Japanese | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Women | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Doctors & Medicine | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Lawyers & Criminals | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Love, Sex & Marriage | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Early Civilization | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

General | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books

Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

French | Erotica | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Victorian | Erotica | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Epic | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

German | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Russian | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Chinese | Classics | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Conspiracy Theories | Current Events | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

War on Drugs | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

English (All) | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books

Science | Dictionaries & Thesauruses | Reference | Subjects | Books

Online Research | Genealogy | Reference | Subjects | Books

Native American | Earth-Based Religions | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books

History of Science | History & Philosophy | Science | Subjects | Books

Magic & Wizards | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books

Sailor Moon | Popular Characters | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Pilates | Exercise & Fitness | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

History | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 2913621058

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out

Average customer rating:

Great for older kids and adults
A book for beginners
This is a Great Book for learning how to write poetry!
Well Done

Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the Inside Out
Ralph Fletcher
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Poetry | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Children's Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0380797038
Release Date: 2002-02-19

Book Description

Maybe you've heard before that poetry is magic, and it made you roll your eyes, but I believe it's true. Poetry matters. At the most important moments, when everyone else is silent, poetry rises to speak.

I wrote this book to help you write poems and to give practical ideas for making your poems sound the way you want them to sound. We're not going to smash poems up into the tiniest pieces. This book is about writing poetry, not analyzing it. I want this book to help you have more wonderful. moments in the poetry you write. I want you to feel the power of poetry. it's my hope that through this book you will discover lots of ways to make your poems shine, sing, soar...

-- Ralph Fletcher

Customer Reviews:

Great for older kids and adults.......2005-10-10

I really enjoyed the details in this book about from where poetry stems. I loved the idea of just watching the wolrd around you and seeing if a poem somes to you. It does! My only concern is the book uses language that would be too difficult for the average 5th-6th grader to understand. I like that poems from kids are included, but this book seems more appropriate for a teacher to reach and intergrate into his/her curriculum.

A book for beginners.......2005-09-29

Here's what I didn't like: the personal approach to poetry writting, using as examples personal anecdotes at the beginning of some chapters; the use of bad poems written by students instead of poems written by great poets; the superficial approach to poetry writting.
This is a book suitable for the very beginners. It wont satisfy poetry readers as well as poets.
Sorry... that's what I think!

This is a Great Book for learning how to write poetry!.......2004-06-20

Hi, I really enjoyed reading Ralph Fletcher's book "Poetry Matters: Writing a Poem from the inside out." He gives lots of good examples. He has interviews with two other poets in the book for ideas on poetry. He makes poetry interesting and fun to learn! I also enjoyed his poetry!

Well Done.......2004-04-02

If you feel like you are a real poet within, this book will help you get it out. One word of caution, everyone thinks he or she is a poet. Yes, everyone is a bad poet and every once in a great while a great poet will emerge.

Thirteen Ways of Looking for a Poem: A Guide to Writing Poetry

Average customer rating:

getting past writer's block
Delightful Sophistication

Thirteen Ways of Looking for a Poem: A Guide to Writing Poetry
Wendy Bishop
Manufacturer: Longman
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

Poetry | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Fiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Nonfiction Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

Look Inside Reference Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Arts & Photography | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Reference | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0321011309

Customer Reviews:

getting past writer's block.......2007-02-19

This is an excellent idea book for the writer who is having difficulty with productivity or inspiration. The different ways to inspire yourself or find a poem will have you writing. An excellent resource book for the writing class. I refer to it for unique or novel ways of looking at the world.

Delightful Sophistication.......2003-09-25

This textbook could be used by college creative writing students just beginning the study of writing poetry as well as advanced students, honing voice, craft, and expressive forms of poetry. Wendy Bishop writes a friendly, well-organized textbook that makes learning sophisticated poetic techniques enjoyable. This trade paperback is a fairly big book 9.09 x 6.28 x 0.83, with 437 pages, presenting a wealth of material in an interesting and accessible manner. Chapters are organized by "forms," broadly conceived as patterns of sound, rhythm, and meaning. Such forms include free verse, metered lines, rhymed and unrhymed couplets, elegies and aubades, ghazals and pantoums, haiku and haiku-like sequences, listing and repetitions, odes and praise songs, prose poems, quatrains, sestinas, sonnets, tercets, terza rima, triplets, and villanelles. Each chapter begins with a clear discussion of professional examples of the form. Next model poems are considered to move from "Reading into Writing." Then an extensive and expansive series of "Invention Exercises" appear, containing drafts of poems by students based on the exercises with additional professional examples. I give my highest recommendation to this text for students of poetry.

American Visions: Multicultural Literature for Writers

Average customer rating:

American Visions: Multicultural Literature for Writers
Dolores Laguardia , and Hans P. Guth
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Literacy | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

Readers | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

Rhetoric | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books

Writing Skills | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books

General | Reference | Subjects | Books

jp-unknown2 | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Literature & Fiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Reference | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1559343222

Book Description

American Visions offers a rich sampling of literature for writing classes with a multicultural perspective, exploring the historical context and contemporary relevance of major themes that have shaped our consciousness as a nation.

Average customer rating:

Wonderful collection
Not perfect but still pretty good

Poems and Shorter Writings
James Joyce
Manufacturer: Faber and Faber
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 0571143059

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful collection.......2007-04-18

This is still a wonderful collection of Joyce's writings that you'd be hard-pressed to find elsewhere, but a word of advice: the used copies sold here are outrageously priced, where Amazon.co.uk readily sells new copies for 12 pounds ...

Not perfect but still pretty good.......2000-05-25

Out of print in the USA, maybe, but not where I come from. It's a minor scandal of the multinational Joyce industry that there is no decently comprehensive, fully annotated edition of Joyce's poems and early writings. This volume contains most but not quite all of the poems, sometimes in texts the correctness of which has been questioned, plus Joyce's early prose Epiphanies, his turgid autobiographical essay "A Portrait of the Artist" (_not_ to be confused with the novel of almost the same name) and his curious prose work "Giacomo Joyce", a half-sardonic, half-bittersweet account of an affair he conducted in his thirties.

Joyce wrote poetry on and off for most of his life, to the mild embarrassment of his modernist friends who couldn't understand how such a revolutionary prose writer could come out with such old-fashioned poems. His early work is very much that of a young writer on a testing ground, trying out the dominant fashions of the age and seeing how well they fitted. Much of his later poetry is comic - I have a friend who's memorised the rollicking satirical broadside "Gas from a Burner", written after Dubliners had been rejected for the umpteenth time - but there are some later lyrics which have appeal for more than just Joyce fans. (The short lyric "Ecce Puer" is his most famous poem, but I also like the sombre "Tilly" which was displayed on Dublin suburban trains for quite some time.) His "Epilogue to Ibsen's Ghosts" is one of the funniest and most acute of his late poems, simultaneously critiquing, celebrating and providing a sequel to the play.

The notes in this edition are very skimpy. Far better annotated is James Mays' Penguin edition of "Poems and 'Exiles'", which included Joyce's only surviving original play; but also omitting for copyright reasons work included here. You really wish that some good fairy could put a stop to the Joyce squabbles and provide us with a reasonably complete, more-or-less well-edited, properly annotated, uniform edition of the works, but it ain't gonna happen. In the meantime, the Penguin Joyce, this and the Critical Writings are all the amateur completist are likely to need. Oh, and the Selected Letters, if you're interested in contractual difficulties and the texture of Nora's underwear.

Average customer rating:

Essential book for CPTs and English teachers

Poetic Medicine

Helpful, good book

Review of Poetic Medicine-- an English teacher's view

Poetic Medicine is Good Medicine

Poetic Medicine: The Healing Art of Poem-Making
John Fox
Manufacturer: Tarcher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Creativity | Self-Help | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books
Poetry | Writing | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Finding What You Didn't Lose (Inner Workbook.)

Writing as a Way of Healing: How Telling Our Stories Transforms Our Lives

Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words

Biblio-Poetry Therapy: The Interactive Process : A Handbook

Poetry Therapy: Theory and Practice

ASIN: 0874778824

Customer Reviews:

Essential book for CPTs and English teachers.......2007-01-28

I had the opportunity to meet John Fox, and I bought his two books then. I have since given them away and had to buy new copies. I found Poetic Medicine particularly useful when I taught high school English. The exercises helped my students deal with grief (that chapter is the best) and depression, and when I've used it, I have felt much better afterwards.

I think this should be a required book in every English teacher's personal library.

Poetic Medicine.......2004-07-10

There are many exercises in the book to inspire your poetry and many inspirational quotes. I've read it twice and intend to read again, as each time I read it different exercises and examples appeal to me. There is an exercise where you write down all the words that appeal to you in poems, to remind you to use them in your own works.

Helpful, good book.......2001-09-21

I"m still working my way through this one, but I'm finding it overall to be helpful... It's a good read, as well, engagingly written and leads me to want to try...

Review of Poetic Medicine-- an English teacher's view.......2001-04-11

As a literature student, I stayed as far away from poetry as I could. It wasn't just that I preferred fiction Poetry made me feel "less than". I didn't get it, and all the terms were confusing.

Now, as an English teacher in a community college, I get a similar response from my own students, most of whom haven't read much poetry, find it difficult or overwhelming, and don't really see the point.

Even sadder, neither of us have believed we can write poetry. Instead, we have believed that poetry is something only a chosen few can do, something that requires mastering a certain form or stanzaic structure or tapping into the Muse at some deeper level of creativity than most of us are capable of.

It's too bad that only recently have we had John Fox's book Poetic Medicine to show us what poetry really is or can be, a means not only of discovery or creative expression, but also of deep emotional and spiritual healing.

As Rachel Naomi Remen points out in the Preface, "Poetry is simply speaking the truth...and one of the best kept secrets in this technologically oriented culture is that simply speaking the truth heals."

Fox helps us get at our truth and thus heal, via a range of exercises that explore such territory as personal relationships, loss, illness, our connection to the earth, love and pain between parent and child, and the use of traditional poetic tools to merge the spiritual and creative.

These exercises are hugged on either side by text which combines Fox's personal insights and experience, both as a poet and poetry therapist, with concrete examples from his own life and those of former workshop participants. Poems from friends and students, as well as pertinent quotes from other writers, complement and enrich Fox's words.

But these words are not just for those of us who already fancy ourselves poets or writers. One of the great characteristics of this and Fox's other book, Finding What You Didn't Lose, is that Fox, like Natalie Goldberg in Writing Down the Bones and Susan Woolridge in Poemcrazy, give us permission to use writing to discover our own selves.

As in his workshops, Fox's kindness, spiritual depth, and true belief that poetry can help us express the inexpressible come through loud and clear in his tone. He is someone who listens deeply, pays attention to his inner world, and by example, helps us do the same.

Poetic Medicine is Good Medicine.......2001-02-21

John Fox's POETIC MEDICINE: The Healing Art of Poem-Making is a user friendly book. You will find yourself circling phrases, underlining sentences, writing in the margins, completing the expertly crafted exercises and drifting in thought and reflection over poetry that touches your soul. The format also includes a wonderful collection of side bars with poetry and quotes by a wide variety of poets, writers and philosophers.

John's choice of chapter titles are in themselves poetic: "The Fragile Bond" -- expressing poems of pain and love between parent and child, "Landscapes of Relationships -- reflecting on intimacy, marriage and longing, "When God Sighs" -- making poems about loss, illness and death.

As an instructor of a poetry course for seniors, I used many of the exercises in POETIC MEDICINE. Participants who often came hesitantly to the class, were delighted when they discovered they were able to express themselves in poetic form. We also worked with some of the tools and basic elements of poetry which are nicely presented in the book.

POETIC MEDICINE is a book one could choose to use individually too. Expressing personal sorrow and love, poem-making to heal societal wounds, or celebrating earth and nature are all avenues one can explore within its pages.

Book Description

Teenage boys speak out—without the filter of adult sensibility—in a compelling collection of poetry and prose.

In a powerful collection of more than seventy uncensored poems and essays, more than fifty teenage boys from across the country explore their many-layered concerns: identity, love, envy, gratitude, sex, anger, competition, fear, hope. Here, unadorned and without the filter of adult sensibility, is the raw stuff of their lives, in their own words. Isn’t it time to listen?

Customer Reviews:

Great!.......2007-07-13

Fridays are poetry days in my classroom. Every few weeks, I pull out this book, or Things I Have to Tell You, and read a poem or two. Time and again, boys will approach me after class and ask to borrow the book. These poems say to kids what Whitman, Frost (sorry--you know I love you, Robert) and Tennyson just can't. Kids must speak to kids. These books assure tentative nascent poets that they can do it, too, and they deliver a strong peer message to kids who are struggling. Betsy Franco has done a great thing here.

Honest.......2007-03-03

This book is a genuine, heartfelt, and very honest portrait of teenagers in urban America. There are those, no doubt, who will be offended by its explicit language and subject matter. Nevertheless, explicit language is one of the hallmarks of teenagers grappling with issues of sexuality, drug use, disability, and a myriad of complex social relationships. This book will not expose teenagers to issues with which they are unfamiliar - despite its language, it will not taint innocent minds. Rather, it will model a healthy way (writing poetry) to grapple with the questions most teenagers face as they navigate the difficult path to adulthood.

Appalling.......2006-12-09

The facts about this book are clear from these excerpts from an article in the New York Daily News,Dec. 7, 2006:

"Sixth-graders at a Queens school were getting quite an education - in homosexuality, French kissing and cursing - thanks to three books widely available in classroom libraries. ... Several parents learned of the racy books after overhearing their kids snickering about the sexual themes.
The poem 'I Hate School' in a book called 'You Hear Me?' includes the rhyme, 'F--- this s---, up the a--. I don't think I'll ever pass.' Another poem compares eating an orange to having sex, while several passages repeatedly use vulgar slang for genitalia. Principal Carmen Parache said ... they were ''definitely inappropriate.' ... 'As soon as I saw them, I pulled them and they are no longer in the school'"

great-except for first entry..........2005-03-05

"Time somebody told me" has been around a lot longer than the young man who submitted it - Otherwise, love the real, true feelings expressed!

Tender? Deep? Try Tolerance Run Amok.......2004-04-12

(...) YOU HEAR ME: POEMS AND WRITINGS BY TEENAGE BOYS is a collection of teenage angst that will shock most any parent who reads this book. That may come as a surprise to those on the left who promote the acceptance of trash as "tolerance"... but "shocked" is probably being kind as many parents would be flat-out angry at finding their 7th-12th grader in possession of this book.

Let me be honest: This book cannot even be reviewed with the frankness I would like, in using words from the book itself, because Amazon would, rightfully, strike it for being obscene! The editorial reviews above give you a taste.

Amazon.com

Just as dancing is "the art of moving in accord with a pattern," says Mary Oliver, so is writing metrical verse. "One sorts out the pattern, one relies on it, and relaxes from effort to pleasure." The rules (concerning rhyme, line length, and pattern) are made if not to be deliberately flouted, then at least to be toyed with. Oliver claims to have written this book for both writers and readers of metrical verse, but it is an odd sort of fit for either. A writer might wish for a little more detail; a reader might find too much. The book works best as a kind of refresher course, for those who have forgotten the difference between metaphysical and Petrarchan conceits, between masculine and feminine rhymes, and would like to brush up a bit. Oliver does a wonderful job of explaining why the most common forms of metrical verse came to prevail (for instance, the five-foot line is "the line which is the closest to the breathing capacity of our lungs"), and of nudging us into reading more metrical poetry (nearly half this volume is devoted to works by John Donne, William Blake, Emily Dickinson, Elizabeth Bishop, and others). Blessedly, Oliver reminds us that, though one could get carried away trying new meters and forms, one shouldn't expect to be writing a lot of double ionics anytime soon. "Expect to use one hypersyllabic foot in ten years, perhaps," she says. "Anacrusis, rarely. Catalexis: often. The double ionic: when the next comet flies over." --Jane Steinberg

Book Description

"True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance," wrote Alexander Pope. "The dance," in the case of Oliver's brief and luminous book, refers to the interwoven pleasures of sound and sense to be found in some of the most celebrated and beautiful poems in the English language, from Shakespeare to Edna St. Vincent Millay to Robert Frost. With a poet's ear and a poet's grace of expression, Oliver shows what makes a metrical poem work - and enables readers, as only she can, to "enter the thudding deeps and the rippling shallows of sound-pleasure and rhythm-pleasure that intensify both the poem's narrative and its ideas."

Customer Reviews:

Guidelines for structured poetry.......2007-05-12

this is a must for beginning and practising poets, looking for the beauty and discipline of structure and meter in poetry. It helps with both the understanding and construction of metrical poetry, and even if you write only free verse, it will increase your appreciation.

Great Resource.......2007-01-10

This is an excellent resource for teaching or studying poetry. Clear and easy to use; well-organized; and it includes a nice anthology of metrical poems -- a complete package.

Mary Oliver shines.......2006-07-20

Mary Oliver shines in this prose manual on the writing and issues of poetic composition. Her economy of words combines with an easy style to help an utter novice (like me) gain an understanding of the metric and rhyming tools involved. Clarity and suppleness of expression mark this book and I would recommend it to anyone who reads poetry or has an interest in trying their hand at writing.

What you may enjoy the most is that Mary does not wander all about the landscape of poetry, but maintains a steady course and uses many pretty little examples to illustrate the concepts. The book is not long but is one of those gems that you will enjoy diving into from time to times for some thoughtful reading on poetics. The author's personality shines through the words - and there is no pretense here, just someone who loves and lives through words.

Consider reading her Wild Geese if you haven't yet - a stunning beautiful piece of work.

So Much More Than I Expected............2004-04-10

I read this book expecting to learn about metrical poetry: kind of the basics of how they work, how they are constructed.

I didn't expect spiritual and personal growth lessons.

Needless to say, I was delighted to be fed on so many different levels. Given Mary Oliver is the author, I shouldn't be surprised.....

I also wasn't expecting to be so compelled to try on the metrical form by reading this book yet I am! And the great thing is I am also learning (through practice) the freedom and spiritual side of writing "according to form and rhythm".

Highly recommended to poets and anyone who loves a poet or the written word.

A simple surprise.......2001-06-10

This book is really well written and inspirational. It helped me to understand better the purpose of metrical poetry. For a lay person such as myself it's easy to fall into thinking that "rules" can only constrict the emotional possibilities of poems. But, Mary Oliver explains, in practical terms, how meter is a tool to evoke an even greater impact from our words.

I would say this book is probably best for those who are new to writing metric poetry. Experienced writers might find it a little superficial.

Customer Reviews:

Too short........2007-07-14

The poetry and novella here are very enjoyable to read. It is smooth, well-written, melodious poetry, and one realizes why Longfellow was so loved in his own day. Longfellow, with others, such as Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost, is one of the great American poets. Unfortunately, Library of America chose to only publish a selection of his work. As before noted by another reviewer, "Tales of a Wayside Inn" is only partial, though the "Song of Hiawatha" is here complete (thankfully). This seems inexcusable, since Library of America found time and space for all of Poe, Whitman, Frost, and Stevens, not to mention minor poets like Emerson and Thoreau. Longfellow, as one of the major American poets, deserves better. So 5 stars for his poetry, but 3 stars for this edition of LoA.

Longfellow.......2007-04-18

A refresher course of my favorite poems all in one volume. I even discovered one of my favorite Christmas songs was actually a poem by Longfellow. I keep it on my coffee table

McClatchy does it again.......2004-07-26

This time he presents an edition of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's books that's every bit as timely and interesting as his own very 20th century poems.

McClatchy's own writing in every field is widely acclaimed, and in a way he is the Longfellow we deserve, with both poems of spiritual affirmation and the poetry of doubt, jostling side by side, uneasy in harness. Longfellow's book Tales of a Wayside Inn is given a dramatic reading here, for McClatchy selects not only the best of the Tales but also tries to find room for the body and the heart in all its different avatars. His excerpts from Michael Angelo are, as well, in tune with what we now know and feel about Michelangelo in the present time of the early 21st century, that he was as great a poet as he was a painter and sculptor, and probably a gay man to boot. Poems like Longfellow's HIAWATHA and EVANGELINE are sensitively edited to bring forward their multicultural and ecological interests. All in all, Longfellow may be the most forwardlooking of all the poets of 19th century USA, and that's a strong statement considering we are putting him ahead of (among others) Emerson, Poe, Dickinson, Whitman, Very, and Melville.

One of the great American poets.......2004-07-05

Longfellow's conventional morality and straightforward manner of expression have long caused his work to be unfairly ignored by serious readers. But those who are willing to give him a try will be rewarded by masterful storytelling, resourceful treatment of American themes, a truly sympathetic imagination, and (perhaps most importantly for poetry lovers) constant metrical experimentation. Unlike, say, Tennyson, who arguably had a better ear, Longfellow was never really satisfied with blank verse and instead played with unusual (for the time) metrical forms. Many people today forget that Longfellow was a highly educated man -- a professor of comparative literature at Harvard and a speaker of numerous languages -- whose broad reading led him to unusual forms and themes.

For those who think of Longfellow as just a schlockmeister, I recommend starting with "The Cross of Snow" (his very private meditation on his second wife's violent death) and "The Slave's Dream." For those interested in great stories in verse, try the selections here from "Tales of a Wayside Inn" (yes, it's a darn shame that more was not included) and "Evangeline." For those interested in Americana, try "The Building of the Ship" and "The New England Tragedies" (the latter being verse dramas on religious persecution and the witchcraft hysteria in Massachusetts). And for those interested in formal experimentation, try "My Lost Youth" and "The Saga of King Olaf."

Like all Library of America editions, this is a beautifully printed book, with helpful notes and a chronology of the author's life. I just wish they had included more!

Not Just Gitchee Gumee.......2000-10-12

J.D. McClatchy here presents a thoughtful selection of Longfellow's verse. Although ignored by contemporary readers and dismissed by the academy, Longfellow is a wrtier who, though never profound, is sincere, engaging, accessible, and humble--qualities rarely associated with modern poetry. It is difficult to read such saccarhine classics as "The Children's Hour" and "A Psalm of Life" without either shrivelling from the sweetness or retreating into a shallow camp perspective, but for the reader willing to make the effort, Longfellow offers the deep rewards of meter, rhyme, and narrative--and the rare pleasure of lines that do not dazzle or daunt by ambiguity. As the poet writes, "Such songs have power to quiet / The restless pulse of care, / And come like the benediction / That follows after prayer."

One's only regret with this volume (a criticism one might make, I suppose, of any selection) is that McClatchy did not include more--specifically, the complete "Tales of a Wayside Inn," which, though represented rather amply, surely should have been included in its entirety as the happiest vehicle for Longfellow's story-based strengths. "The Bell of Atri," one of the most charming of the tales, should certainly be here. Then, too, the editor seems rather determined in his selection to present a more somber presentation of the poet than is warrented by his full corpus. (Perhaps he aims to make Longfellow more attractive to an audience accustomed to the confessional and the dour.) Oh, well. In compensation we do get useful notes, an excellent chronology, and the delightful novella "Kavanagh"--all of which make this surely the most pleasant poetry revival of the past several years.

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books