
The Practice of Poetry
Description
Alles über E-Books | Antworten auf Fragen rund um E-Books, Kopierschutz und Dateiformate finden Sie in unserem Info- & Hilfebereich.
The Practice of Poetry is the first handbook for poets to combine poetry-writing exercises with illuminating personal essays by each contributor. The editors, Robin Behn and Chase Twichell, who are themselves poets and teachers of creative writing, have collected more than ninety tested and proven exercises intended for poets enrolled in writing programs or working on their own.
Poetry, like any art, is best mastered through practice and, as Behn and Twichell point out in their introduction, "A good exercise serves as a scaffold... [and] helps you think about, articulate, and solve specific creative problems." The exercises in The Practice of Poetry addresses a broad range of topics: the struggle from inspiration, transforming memory and experience into writing, the process of revision, experimenting with formal structure, as well as many others. The result is a comprehensive, distinctive collection of exciting exercises that stimulate the imagination and increase technical flexibility and control.
The Practice of Poetry offers poets a chance to sample the best creative-writing techniques being taught in programs around the country and will prove an unlimited resource for any poet writing today.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions

Content
- Intro
- CONTENTS
- INTRODUCTION
- PART 1. LADDERS TO THE DARK: THE UNCONSCIOUS AS GOLD MINE
- First Words Ann Lauterbach
- Not-So-Automatic Automatic-Writing Exercise Thomas Lux
- Translations: Idea to Image (for a group) Carol Muske
- Dream Notebook Maxine Kumin
- Ten-Minute Spill Rita Dove
- Auction: First Lines (for a group) Michael Waters
- "Only Connect" Sydney Lea
- Chanting the Flowers Off the Wall (for a group) Christopher Davis
- An Emotional Landscape (for a group) Cleopatra Mathis
- A Journey to Nowhere Susan Snively
- The Free-Lance Muse Ann Lauterbach
- PART 2. THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD: IMAGE AND METAPHOR
- One's-Self, En-Masse Michael Pettit
- Intriguing Objects Exercise/ "Show and Tell" (for a group) Anne Waldman
- Breaking the Sentence
- or, No Sentences but in Things Roger Mitchell
- Five Easy Pieces Richard Jackson
- As/Like/Finish the Sentence Linnea Johnson
- Quilting in the Ditch James McKean
- Getting at Metaphor Roger Mitchell
- A Little Nightmusic: The Narrative Metaphor T. Alan Broughton
- Experience Falls Through Language like Water Through a Sieve Susan Mitchell
- Writing the Spectrum Elizabeth Spires
- "Tell by Showing": An Exercise Against Technique Roger Mitchell
- PART 3. WHO'S TALKING AND WHY?: THE SELF AND ITS SUBJECTS
- A. ASPECTS OF VOICE
- Dramatic Monologue: Carving the Voice, Carving the Mask David St. John
- The Widow Maura Stanton
- Our Suits, Our Selves Christopher Gilbert
- Letter Poems Robin Behn
- Tabloid Tone Exercise Lee Upton
- The Peasant Wedding (for a group) Mary Swander
- Estrangement and Reconciliation: The Self Has It Out with the Self Leslie Ullman
- "In the Waiting Room" Carol Muske
- B. WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
- Who We Were Edward Hirsch
- Your Mother's Kitchen Rita Dove
- The Night Aunt Dottie Caught Elvis's Handkerchief When He Tossed It from the Stage of The Sands in Vegas David Wojahn
- Not "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (for a group) Garrett Hongo
- Extrapolation Pamela Alexander
- Evolutions Deborah Digges
- Afterimages: The History of a Reflection Jay Klokker
- Subject and Sound: The Black Sheep Kenneth Rosen
- A Poem That Scares You Sandra McPherson
- PART 4. TRUTH IN STRANGENESS: ACCIDENTS, CHANCE, AND THE NONRATIONAL
- Intelligence Test Alberta Turner
- Personal Universe Deck Linnea Johnson
- The Cut-and-Shuffle Poem Jack Myers
- Finish This! Stuart Friebert
- Twenty Little Poetry Projects Jim Simmerman
- Collaborative "Cut-Up" Anne Waldman
- Found in Translation Theodore Weiss
- Homophonic Translation Charles Bernstein
- Index/Table of Contents Exercise Lee Upton
- Make Your Own System! Jackson Mac Low
- PART 5. LAWS OF THE WILD: STRUCTURE, SHAPELINESS, AND ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES
- Block, Pillar, Slab, and Beam Deborah Digges
- The Fill-in-the-Blanks or Definition Poem Jack Myers
- Opposites: The Attraction of Titles Stuart Dischell
- Cleave and Cleave Carol Muske
- Matthewsian Invisible Hinge Pamela Alexander
- "Que Sera, Sera" and Other False Premises Christopher Gilbert
- "The Props Assist the House" James McKean
- The Familiar Alicia Ostriker
- Writing Between the Lines J. D. McClatchy
- The Poetry Obstacle Course Marcia Southwick
- Important Excitements: Writing Groups of Related Poems Maggie Anderson
- The Short Narrative Poem Roland Flint
- The Cat Poem Alicia Ostriker
- The Seduction Poem Alicia Ostriker
- PART 6. MUSICAL MATTERS: SOUND, RHYTHM, AND THE LINE
- A Lewis Carroll Carol Karen Swenson
- Emotion/Motion/Ocean/Shun Susan Mitchell
- Patterning Stephen Dunn
- Breathless, Out of Breath Richard Jackson
- Free-Verse Lineation Sharon Bryan
- A Variation on Sharon Bryan's Free-Verse Lineation Jack Myers
- "Lyric" Poetry Dana Gioia
- Shall We Dance? Richard Jackson
- Short Lines and Long Lines Andrew Hudgins
- Word Problems and Science Tests Robin Becker
- Anglo-Saxon Lines Judith Baumel
- Sapphic Stanzas Judith Baumel
- Pantoum Judith Baumel
- Attempting a Villanelle Molly Peacock
- Ghazal: The Charms of a Considered Disunity Agha Shahid Ali
- The Meter Reader Thomas Rabbitt
- PART 7. MAJOR AND MINOR SURGERY: ON REVISION AND WRITER'S BLOCK
- A. EXERCISES
- Writer's Block: An Antidote Daniel Halpern
- Smash Palace William Matthews
- Rhapsodizing Repetitions Lee Upton
- Stealing the Goods Stephen Dunn
- Jump-Starting the Dead Poem Lynne McMahon
- Scissors & Scotch Tape Chase Twichell
- In a Dark Room: Photography and Revision Maggie Anderson
- The Party of the Century (for a group) Roger Weingarten
- The Shell Game Thomas Rabbitt
- B. REFLECTIONS
- The Rewrite as Assignment Stanley Plumly
- Household Economy, Ruthlessness, Romance, and the Art of Hospitality Richard Tillinghast
- Of Revision Donald Justice
- In Praise of Malice: Thoughts on Revision Lynn Emanuel
- Waiting and Silence Susan Snively
- APPENDIX A: Mail-Order Sources of Poetry Books
- APPENDIX B: Published Works Referred to in the Text
- CONTRIBUTORS' NOTES
- SEARCHABLE TERMS
- COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHORS
- OTHER BOOKS BY ROBIN BEHN
- OTHER BOOKS BY CHASE TWICHELL
- CREDITS
- COPYRIGHT
- ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
System requirements
File format: ePUB
Copy protection: Watermark-DRM (Digital Rights Management)
System requirements:
- Computer (Windows; MacOS X; Linux): Use a reading software that can process the file format ePUB: e.g., Adobe Digital Editions or FBReader – both free (see eBook Help).
- Tablet/Smartphone (Android; iOS): Before downloading, install the free app Adobe Digital Editions (see eBook Help).
- E-reader: Bookeen, Kobo, Pocketbook, Sony, Tolino and many more (not Kindle).
The file format ePUB works well for novels and non-fiction books – i.e., „flowing” text without complex layout. On an e-reader or smartphone, line and page breaks automatically adjust to fit the small displays.
This eBook uses Watermark-DRM, a „soft” copy protection. This means that there are no technical restrictions to prevent illegal distribution. However, there is a personalised watermark embedded in the eBook that can be used to identify the purchaser of the eBook in the event of misuse and to provide evidence for legal purposes.
For more information, see our eBook Help page.