In the Palm of Your Hand

An illuminating and invaluable guide for beginners wary of modern poetry, as well as for more advanced students who want to sharpen their craft and write poems that expand their technical skills, excite their imaginations, and engage their deepest memories and concerns. Ideal for teachers who have been searching for a way to inspire students with a love for writing--and reading--contemporary poetry.

Foreword

i

A Few Words before Getting Started

iii

How to Begin

1

(7)

Speak, Memory

I Couldn't Stop Watching

8

(13)

Little Poems in Prose

21

(9)

Shards of Memory: Playing With Time

30

(8)

The Secret of Writing

Awful Poems

38

(10)

The Art of Revision

48

(8)

Music and Metaphor

After-Glow: The Interior Music

56

(8)

Lonely as a Leftover Thumb: Figure and Image

64

(15)

Speeding Home in Reverse: The Controlling Metaphor

79

(9)

Myth, Legend, and Pop Icon

88

(6)

Family Secrets: The Poem as Photograph

94

(8)

Experiment and the Tradition

Cut-Ups, Cross-Outs, and Ransom Notes

102

(9)

The House of Language

111

(10)

Flying Into Oneself: Dream Work and the Magical Image

121

(8)

Deranging the Senses: Automatic Writing And Ecstatic Poetics

129

(8)

Coils of Hardened Copper: The Modernist Revolution

137

(9)

Playing With Meter: The Measure of a Poem

146

(8)

A Lighthearted Look at Formal Structure: Limericks and Double Dactyls

154

(5)

More Pleasures of Form and Rhyme: Sonnets and Villanelles

159

(6)

A Cribsheet of English Meters

165

(4)

Line Breaks

169

(13)

The Perennial Themes

The Body Politic

182

(12)

As Soon as These Blossoms Open: The Poetry of Love and Longing

194

(12)

Bodies Flaring in the Moonlight: The Poetry of Desire

206

(9)

Flower Burning in the Day: Poems of Loss

215

(10)

Into the Dazzling Void: Writing About the Natural World

225

(9)

Poetry and the Awakened Life

234

(12)

Nuts and Bolts

The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Poetry Workshops

246

(6)

Getting Your Poems into the World

252

(7)

Resources

259

(5)

Acknowledgements

264

(6)

Index

270

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The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

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In the Palm of Your Hand

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials