Writing Poems

Contents

Before Designing the Course: A Preface to the Teacher  xix

1   Starting Out: An Introduction   1

Word Magic  4

Diction  4

Syntax  8

Pruning and Weeding  10

Clarity, Obscurity, and Ambiguity  12

Questions and Suggestions  14

Poems to Consider   

Barter  

       RAVI SHANKAR                                                                                                                                        

        Mule Hour 

        TERRANCE HAYES

        Famous

        NAOMI SHIHAB NYE                                                                                                                                                               

        Abstraction

        GEOFFREY BROCK                                                                                                                                                                    

        Reading Sonnevi on a Tuesday Night 

WAYNE MILLER

PART I: FORM 

2   Verse  25

Line  27

Form  29

Balance  33

Questions and Suggestions  37

Poems to Consider  

the rites for Cousin Vit 

GWENDOLYN BROOKS                                                                                                                                                                     

Po]tolka (Prague)  

CHRISTIAN WIMAN                                                                                                                          

Form 

HEATHER MCHUGH          

What The Mosquito Gives   

AIMEE NEZHUKUMATATHIL        

Traveling through the Dark  

William Stafford

Unconditional Election  

David Baker

3   Making the Line (I)  44

Meter  46

Stress  47

Speech, Rhythm, and the Line

Line Length

Questions and Suggestions  60

Poems to Consider  

Sisyphus  

JAY LEEMING

Signs  

Gjertrud Schnackenberg

What We Know About Ghost Images                                                                        

DEBORAH BOGEN                                                                                                                                                  

Eva Braun at Berchtesgaden 

VICTORIA CHANG

Her Web  66

Erin Belieu

One Art  67

Elizabeth Bishop

4   Making the Line (II)  69

Longer Lines  70

Lines of Mixed Length  72

Shorter Lines  74

Syllabics

Prose Poems  78

Questions and Suggestions  80

Poems to Consider  

Meanwhile

RICHARD SIKEN       

Balloons  

Sylvia Plath

Don’t Look Back

KAY RYAN

The Guides 

RIGOBERTO GONZALEZ

the fever   

SIMONE MUENCH

Gruss 

DEAN YOUNG                                                                                                                            

5   The Sound (and Look) of Sense  89

Visible Form  91

Repetition  95

Alliteration and Assonance  97

Rhyme  98

Onomatopoeia  101

Questions and Suggestions  102

Poems to Consider  

Dear Petrarch  104

Cate Marvin

            Do Not Disturb

             MARY RUEFLE

 Reapers  109

 Jean Toomer

 January II  106

 Charles Wright

 After the Trial  107

 Weldon Kees

PART II: CONTENT

6   Subject Matter  113

Subjects and Objects  115

Memory  120

Imagery  122

Resonant Detail  125

Questions and Suggestions  128

Poems to Consider  

Bitch  132

Carolyn Kizer

The Man. His Bowl. His Raspberries.

CLAUDIA RANKINE

The Tropics in New York  133

Claude McKay

            Chrysanthemums  

            SPENCER REECE

The Beautician  130

Thom Gunn

7   Metaphor  136

Figuratively Speaking  139

A Name for Everything  143

Pattern and Motif  145

Conceits  148

Metaphoric Implication  150

Questions and Suggestions  152

Poems to Consider  

The Empire in the Air  153

Kevin Prufer

My Arms

PAUL GUEST        

Rowing                                                                                                          

JEFFREY HARRISON

The Way Things Work 

JORIE GRAHAM                                                                                                                         

Blue  159

Reginald Shepherd

8   Tale, Teller, and Tone  160

Narration, Pacing, and Tense  162

Persona  165

Point of View  168

Tone  172

Questions and Suggestions  174

Poems to Consider  

Personals  175

C. D. Wright

[writing for a young man on the redline train: “to his boy mistress”]                 

D.A. POWELL

Bleeder

STEPHEN DOBYNS                                                                                                                                                             

Winter  

MARIE PONSOT

The Wood-Pile  176

Robert Frost

9   The Mysteries of Language  182

The Sense of Nonsense  183

The Logic of the Analogic  188

Ordinary Strangeness  191

Translation  193

Questions and Suggestions  195

Poems to Consider  

Hunger 

YASSER ABDEL-LATIF

Remember the Trains?  200

Martha Collins

A Hunger So Honed  202

Tracy K. Smith

Everything  203

Srikanth Reddy

The Moon 

jaime sabines

Part III: Process 

10    Finding the Poem  207

Imitation and Models  208

Sources and “Truth”  212

Emotion and Thought  214

Getting into Words  218

Keeping a Poem Going  220

Questions and Suggestions  223

Poems to Consider  

The Other Cold War  227

Adrian Blevins

            Realism

            CZESLAW MILOSZ

Off-Season at the Edge of the World  

DEBORA GREGER

Visitation  228

Kathy Fagan

Song  228

Brigit Pegeen Kelly

11   Devising and Revising  231

Exploring  231

Focusing  235

Shaping  237

Creating Community 

Submitting Your Work 

Questions and Suggestions  246

Poems to Consider  

Workshop  271

Billy Collins

Immediate Revision  252

Chase Twichell

Muse

KIM ADDONIZIO

The Next Poem  275

Dana Gioia

Winter Conception  273

Eleanor Wilner

Appendix I: Questions for Discussing and Revising Poetry  277

Appendix II: A Brief Glossary of Forms  283

Acknowledgments  295

Index of Authors and Titles  301

Index of Terms  307

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