The Practice of Poetry

by Behn, Robin

• ISBN13: 9780062730244
• ISBN10: 006273024X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-25
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

A distinctive collection of more than 90 effective poetry writing exercises combined with corresponding essays to inspire writers of all levels.

This guide to writing poetry combines essays by practicing poets and poetry teachers with exercises covering inspiration, the senses, voice, structure, and revision

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION	xi
PART 1. LADDERS TO THE DARK: THE UNCONSCIOUS AS GOLD MINE	1	(30)
First Words	3	(2)
Ann Lauterbach
Not-So-Automatic Automatic-Writing Exercise	5	(3)
Thomas Lux
Translations: Idea to Image (for a group)	8	(3)
Carol Muske
Dream Notebook	11	(2)
Maxine Kumin
Ten-Minute Spill	13	(2)
Rita Dove
Auction: First Lines (for a group)	15	(2)
Michael Waters
"Only Connect"	17	(3)
Sydney Lea
Chanting the Flowers Off the Wall (for a group)	20	(2)
Christopher Davis
An Emotional Landscape (for a group)	22	(5)
Cleopatra Mathis
A Journey to Nowhere	27	(2)
Susan Snively
The Free-Lance Muse	29	(2)
Ann Lauterbach
PART 2. THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD: IMAGE AND METAPHOR	31	(28)
One's-Self, En-Masse	33	(2)
Michael Pettit
Intriguing Objects Exercise/ "Show and Tell" (for a group)	35	(2)
Anne Waldman
Breaking the Sentence; or, No Sentences but in Things	37	(3)
Roger Mitchell
Five Easy Pieces	40	(2)
Richard Jackson
As/Like/Finish the Sentence	42	(2)
Linnea Johnson
Quilting in the Ditch	44	(2)
James McKean
Getting at Metaphor	46	(2)
Roger Mitchell
A Little Nightmusic: The Narrative Metaphor	48	(3)
T. Alan Broughton
Experience Falls Through Language like Water Through a Sieve	51	(3)
Susan Mitchell
Writing the Spectrum	54	(2)
Elizabeth Spires
"Tell by Showing": An Exercise Against Technique	56	(3)
Roger Mitchell
PART 3. WHO'S TALKING AND WHY?: THE SELF AND ITS SUBJECTS	59	(48)
A. ASPECTS OF VOICE	61	(24)
Dramatic Monologue: Carving the Voice, Carving the Mask	63	(3)
David St. John
The Widow	66	(2)
Maura Stanton
Our Suits, Our Selves	68	(2)
Christopher Gilbert
Letter Poems	70	(3)
Robin Behn
Tabloid Tone Exercise	73	(2)
Lee Upton
The Peasant Wedding (for a group)	75	(3)
Mary Swander
Estrangement and Reconciliation: The Self Has It Out with the Self	78	(2)
Leslie Ullman
"In the Waiting Room"	80	(5)
Carol Muske
B. WHAT'S IT ABOUT?	85	(22)
Who We Were	87	(2)
Edward Hirsch
Your Mother's Kitchen	89	(2)
Rita Dove
The Night Aunt Dottie Caught Elvis's Handkerchief When He Tossed It from the Stage of The Sands in Vegas	91	(3)
David Wojahn
Not "The Oprah Winfrey Show" (for a group)	94	(2)
Garrett Hongo
Extrapolation	96	(1)
Pamela Alexander
Evolutions	97	(2)
Deborah Digges
Afterimages: The History of a Reflection	99	(2)
Jay Klokker
Subject and Sound: The Black Sheep	101	(3)
Kenneth Rosen
A Poem That Scares You	104	(3)
Sandra McPherson
PART 4. TRUTH IN STRANGENESS: ACCIDENTS, CHANCE, AND THE NONRATIONAL	107	(30)
Intelligence Test	109	(2)
Alberta Turner
Personal Universe Deck	111	(3)
Linnea Johnson
The Cut-and-Shuffle Poem	114	(2)
Jack Myers
Finish This!	116	(3)
Stuart Friebert
Twenty Little Poetry Projects	119	(4)
Jim Simmerman
Collaborative "Cut-Up"	123	(2)
Anne Waldman
Found in Translation	125	(1)
Theodore Weiss
Homophonic Translation	126	(2)
Charles Bernstein
Commentary on Charles Bernstein's Homophonic Translation	128	(1)
Pamela Alexander
Index/Table of Contents Exercise	129	(2)
Lee Upton
Make Your Own System!	131	(6)
Jackson Mac Low
PART 5. LAWS OF THE WILD: STRUCTURE, SHAPELINESS, AND ORGANIZING PRINCIPLES	137	(34)
Block, Pillar, Slab, and Beam	139	(2)
Deborah Digges
The Fill-in-the-Blanks or Definition Poem	141	(2)
Jack Myers
Opposites: The Attraction of Titles	143	(2)
Stuart Dischell
Cleave and Cleave	145	(2)
Carol Muske
Matthewsian Invisible Hinge	147	(1)
Pamela Alexander
"Que Sera, Sera" and Other False Premises	148	(2)
Christopher Gilbert
"The Props Assist the House"	150	(3)
James McKean
The Familiar	153	(2)
Alicia Ostriker
Writing Between the Lines	155	(3)
J. D. McClatchy
The Poetry Obstacle Course	158	(2)
Marcia Southwick
Important Excitements: Writing Groups of Related Poems	160	(4)
Maggie Anderson
The Short Narrative Poem	164	(3)
Roland Flint
The Cat Poem	167	(2)
Alicia Ostriker
The Seduction Poem	169	(2)
Alicia Ostriker
PART 6. MUSICAL MATTERS: SOUND, RHYTHM, AND THE LINE	171	(42)
A Lewis Carroll Carol	173	(2)
Karen Swenson
Emotion/Motion/Ocean/Shun	175	(2)
Susan Mitchell
Patterning	177	(2)
Stephen Dunn
Breathless, Out of Breath	179	(2)
Richard Jackson
Free-Verse Lineation	181	(1)
Sharon Bryan
A Variation on Sharon Bryan's Free-Verse Lineation	182	(2)
Jack Myers
"Lyric" Poetry	184	(3)
Dana Gioia
Shall We Dance?	187	(2)
Richard Jackson
Short Lines and Long Lines	189	(2)
Andrew Hudgins
Word Problems and Science Tests	191	(2)
Robin Becker
Anglo-Saxon Lines	193	(2)
Judith Baumel
Sapphic Stanzas	195	(3)
Judith Baumel
Pantoum	198	(2)
Judith Baumel
Attempting a Villanelle	200	(5)
Molly Peacock
Ghazal: The Charms of a Considered Disunity	205	(5)
Agha Shahid Ali
The Meter Reader	210	(3)
Thomas Rabbitt
PART 7. MAJOR AND MINOR SURGERY: ON REVISION AND WRITER'S BLOCK	213	(47)
A. EXERCISES	215	(26)
Writer's Block: An Antidote	217	(4)
Daniel Halpern
Smash Palace	221	(2)
William Matthews
Rhapsodizing Repetitions	223	(2)
Lee Upton
Stealing the Goods	225	(2)
Stephen Dunn
Jump-Starting the Dead Poem	227	(1)
Lynne McMahon
Scissors & Scotch Tape	228	(3)
Chase Twichell
In a Dark Room: Photography and Revision	231	(5)
Maggie Anderson
The Party of the Century (for a group)	236	(3)
Roger Weingarten
The Shell Game	239	(2)
Thomas Rabbitt
B. REFLECTIONS	241	(19)
The Rewrite as Assignment	243	(2)
Stanley Plumly
Household Economy, Ruthlessness, Romance, and the Art of Hospitality	245	(4)
Richard Tillinghast
Of Revision	249	(2)
Donald Justice
In Praise of Malice: Thoughts on Revision	251	(6)
Lynn Emanuel
Waiting and Silence	257	(3)
Susan Snively
APPENDIX A: Mail-Order Sources of Poetry Books	260	(3)
APPENDIX B: Published Works Referred to in the Text	263	(21)
CONTRIBUTORS' NOTES	284	(9)
INDEX	293