What Is Poetry and How Do I Write It?
What Is Poetry and How Do I Begin to Write?
Where Does Poetry Come From?
How Does Poetry Function?
Do You Have to Have Talent to Write Poetry?
Exposing Poetry's Bones: What Poetry Is Made Of
Hyperbole and Understatement
Content (What Are You Going to Write About?)
How Do I Put All These Things Together?
Getting Started (and Over the Fear of Starting!): The Poetic Process
Freeing Yourself of the Ordinary
How to Know If What You Are Writing Is "Good"
Have You Said What You Wanted to Say?
Show Your Writing to Someone Else
All Your Words Fit to Print (and Some That Aren't!): Keeping Journals
The Importance of Journaling
The Difference Between a Journal and a Diary
When to Write in Your Journal
The Short Course in Journaling
Extracting Poems from Your Journals
Opening the Stanza's Door: Entering Poetry
Painting with Words: Imagery
Literal and Figurative Images
Painting with Words: How to Create an Image
When Good Metaphors Go Bad: Mixed Metaphor
Exercises for the Metaphorically Impaired
Repetition, Repetition, Repetition
Repeating Phrases and Refrains
Beginning and Ending Repetition
Image and Symbol Repetition
Alliteration, Assonance, and Consonance
You've Got Rhythm: Metrical Poetry
The Short Course in Counting: Scansion
Accentual and Syllabic Meter
Popular Types of Poems and How to Write Them
Tell Me a Story: Narrative Poetry
Third Person: "He" and "She" and "It"
Love and the Great Beyond
The Three Faces of Eve: Persona Poems and Letter Poems
Spellbinding!: List Poems and Rituals
Variations in and on the Sonnet
Concrete Poetry and Calligrams
Cursed Be He Who Stirs My Bones!: Avoiding Poetry Pitfalls
Obvious and Familiar Language
Noun-of-Noun Construction
Monotonous Meter and Rotten Repetition
Melodrama and Sentimentality
The "Guess What It Is" Poem
Too Much, Too Little, Too Late
How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?: Revision, Revision, Revision
When Good Poems Go Bad: The Quick Fix
What Does Your Poem Want to Be When It Grows Up?
The Theory That You'll Keep Getting Better
To Slam or Not To Slam?: Reading Your Poetry in Public
Why Should I Read Poetry in Public?
What to Expect at a Reading
Slamming and the Spoken Word
Starting a Reading Series or a Slam
Writing in a Vacuum: Workshops, Colonies, Conferences
What Is a Poetry "Workshop"?
Become an Active Critic in Your Workshop
Workshops and Other Poetry Forums on the WWW
Finding Mr. or Mrs. Critic "Right"
The Creative Writing Degree
Types of Writing Programs
The Top Writing Programs in the United States
Choosing a Writing Program
Your Name in Print: Getting Published
Why Do You Want to Be Published?
How to Get Your Poems Published
Organizing Your Submissions
An Insider Look at the Acceptance/Rejection Process
Rejection ... and More Rejection
The Big Day: Publication!
What a Tangled Web We Weave
Pen Out of Ink?: Beating Writer's Block
I Gotta Use Words When I Talk to You: From Diann Blakely
A Rose Is Not a Rosa: From Richard Blanco
About the Author: From Catherine Bowman
The Swing Shift Blues: From Richard Cecil
Obsessive Definitions: From Denise Duhamel
The Day the Pleasure Factory Broke Down: From Stephen Dunn
Clustering: From Lola Haskins
Poetic Dialogue: From Dean Kostos
The Best and the Worst: From David Lehman
What's in a Name?: From Lyn Lifshin
Graphing Your Life: From Campbell McGrath
Not This, Not This, ... but That: From David Rivard
Detail Scavenger Hunt: From Maureen Seaton
Two Exercises: From Reginald Shepherd
Bedroom Catalogue: From Maura Stanton
One Exercise: From Charles Harper Webb
Follow the Pack: Finding Good Poems
The Skills I Use, the Skills They Use
Writing Poetry FAQs: Most Frequently Asked Questions
Why Does Poetry Have So Many Rules?
Do I Have to Capitalize the Beginning Word of Each Line in My Poem?
Why Do Some Poets Shorten Words, as in O'ercast, E'er, 'Mong, 'Twould, 'Twas, Etc.
Someone Told Me I Shouldn't Use Thee, Thy, Dost, and Other Words Like Them. Why Not?
Where Should I Break My Lines? Can't I Just Break Them Anywhere I Want?
What Do I Do If a Line in My Poem Is Too Long and Runs Over onto the Next Line?
Do I Have to Use Stanzas in My Poems?
I Had an Idea for a Poem but Then I Found Out That Someone Else Wrote One with the Same Subject Matter. Can I Still Write It?
What Does It Mean When a Poet Writes a Poem After Another Poet?
I'm a Free Spirit and I Just Want to Express My Feelings, So Why Do I Have to Know Anything About Meter or Form? Aren't Those Things Passe Anyway?
I Want to Try Writing Some Fixed Forms. Do I Have to Adhere Strictly to the Form, or Can I Play Around with It a Bit? If I Do, Is It Still a Formal Poem?
Does Anyone Still Take Rhyme Seriously?
Can I Use Modern-Sounding Details (Cell Phone, Coke Can, E-Mail) in a Poem and Still Have It Be Considered a Serious Poem?
I Feel Very Misunderstood by My Workshop. They Just Don't "Get" What I'm Trying to Do. Should I Try to Find a New Workshop or Quit Trying the "Group Thing" Altogether?
Isn't Poetry Just About Creating Something Beautiful? Making Beauty out of the Language?
Do I Have to Copyright My Poems?
How Do I Get a Book of Poems Published?
If I Keep Writing Poetry, Will I Be "Discovered"?
I've Never Shown My Poems to Anyone Else Before and I'm Afraid To
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