The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach

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, NONRATIONAL
CHANCE, AND
THE
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
Commentary on Charles Bernstein’s Homophonic Translation Pamela
Alexander
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
SEARCHABLE TERMS
APPENDIX A: Mail-Order Sources of Poetry Books APPENDIX B: Published Works Referred to in the Text COPYRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
CONTRIBUTORS’ NOTES
OTHER BOOKS BY ROBIN BEHN OTHER BOOKS BY CHASE TWICHELL CREDITS
COPYRIGHT
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER