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The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach by Chase Twichell, Robin Behn
faryewing's review against another edition
5.0
Not the kind of book you read cover to cover. More, for me at least, the kind of book you pick up skim through, choose an exercise, then check off when complete.
donasbooks's review against another edition
5.0
This book is full of excellent poetry exercises that can be used for practice or as prompts to get the creative engine purring. With these exercise manuals, you sometimes think, You've seen one, you've seen them all, but you haven't seen what'sin this one. The editors Behn and Twichell compiled these exercises from experts in the education of poetry, and it shows. Clever, creative, and expanding, you are bound to find exercises in this ageless volume that will challenge and develop your poetic mind. Recommended for poets at every level!
sophiejuhlin's review against another edition
4.0
Whether I do an exercise from this book by myself or with a writing group, I always end up with something interesting and unexpected. A unique collection offering wide interpretations and great ideas.
kaylin_vandy's review against another edition
5.0
Overall, this book has been extremely helpful in prompting me to continue writing. So many new poems have been born in my mind from the exercises within The Practice of Poetry. This book is especially good as a quick reference when a writer is experiencing “writer’s block” or is just missing inspiration. Simply pick up the book and flip to any page to find an exercise which will give you a place to start.
mlindner's review against another edition
4.0
Behn, Robin, and Chase Twichell. The Practice of Poetry : Writing Exercises from Poets Who Teach. 1st ed. New York N.Y.: Collins Reference, 2005. Print.
This book serves multiple purposes, although I approached it as a solo poet, working alone. It could easily be used in a classroom situation or other group setting.
The book primarily consists of exercises, of various types, supplied by teachers of poetry writing. There are exercises for the individual and for groups. Many of the group exercises can be easily modified for use by the lone poet, and all can certainly be used in a group, although they might need some modification to make them more useful as group exercises.
The book consists of an Introduction, 7 parts, and 2 appendices.
1. Ladders to the Dark: The Unconscious as Gold Mine
2. The Things of this World: Image and Metaphor
3. Who's Talking and Why?: The Self and Its Subjects
A. Aspects of Voice
B. What's It About?
4. Truth in Strangeness: Accidents, Chance, and the Nonrational
5. Laws of the Wild: Structure, Shapeliness, and Organizing Principles
6. Musical Matters: Sound, Rhythm, and the Line
7. Major and Minor Surgery: On Revision and Writer's Block
A. Exercises
B. Reflections
App. A. Mail-order sources of poetry books [Which I fear may be horribly out-of-date]
App. B. Published works referred to in the text
There is also a Contributor's Notes section and an Index.
Depending on who you are, and how you react to what is basically a self-help book, you will get varying amounts of use from this book. Poetry writing instructors could well find lots of useful stimulation and full-fledged exercises in this book.
Being who I am, along with my general lack of effort put into self-help books, I did not find a lot, although I certainly did find some value in it. If I can simply make myself do some of these exercise then I will gain a fair bit from it.
If I counted correctly, there are 88 exercises in the book. Ones for groups are so identified in the table of contents. There appears to be 8 so designated but, again, many of the others could be easily modified for group use.
As I read through the book I put a pencil mark next to the titles in the table of contents of those I thought might be immediately useful to me. That is, of those I might actually bother to do. I marked 9 such exercises; 3 from Pt. 2 (metaphor and image), 1 from Pt. 3 (aspects of voice), 3 from Pt. 4 ("Truth in Strangeness"), 1 from Pt. 5 (structure), and 1 from Pt. 7 (revision). All in all, I think that is a fair amount. And no doubt, if I can bring myself to do some of these then I imagine that I might be inspired to do others.
Nine out of 88 is over 10% that I found immediately useful and doable. I call that a pretty good bargain seeing as I got the book from amazon for $10.99.
If you are a highly self-motivated poet who finds or invents prompts and writing exercises on your own then you might not need this book, although that is not to say that you would get nothing from it. But if you are looking for ideas, or if you invest more authority in "official" teachers than in other sources of ideas, you might well get some help and guidance from this book.
Keep in mind that this book can be read and used in any order. It is meant to be dipped into as need and interest drive one, and not necessarily read cover to cover as I did.
Yes, my star rating seems higher than my write-up but I am accounting for the quality of the book and not my general laziness and lack of doing in regards to self-help books.
This book serves multiple purposes, although I approached it as a solo poet, working alone. It could easily be used in a classroom situation or other group setting.
The book primarily consists of exercises, of various types, supplied by teachers of poetry writing. There are exercises for the individual and for groups. Many of the group exercises can be easily modified for use by the lone poet, and all can certainly be used in a group, although they might need some modification to make them more useful as group exercises.
The book consists of an Introduction, 7 parts, and 2 appendices.
1. Ladders to the Dark: The Unconscious as Gold Mine
2. The Things of this World: Image and Metaphor
3. Who's Talking and Why?: The Self and Its Subjects
A. Aspects of Voice
B. What's It About?
4. Truth in Strangeness: Accidents, Chance, and the Nonrational
5. Laws of the Wild: Structure, Shapeliness, and Organizing Principles
6. Musical Matters: Sound, Rhythm, and the Line
7. Major and Minor Surgery: On Revision and Writer's Block
A. Exercises
B. Reflections
App. A. Mail-order sources of poetry books [Which I fear may be horribly out-of-date]
App. B. Published works referred to in the text
There is also a Contributor's Notes section and an Index.
Depending on who you are, and how you react to what is basically a self-help book, you will get varying amounts of use from this book. Poetry writing instructors could well find lots of useful stimulation and full-fledged exercises in this book.
Being who I am, along with my general lack of effort put into self-help books, I did not find a lot, although I certainly did find some value in it. If I can simply make myself do some of these exercise then I will gain a fair bit from it.
If I counted correctly, there are 88 exercises in the book. Ones for groups are so identified in the table of contents. There appears to be 8 so designated but, again, many of the others could be easily modified for group use.
As I read through the book I put a pencil mark next to the titles in the table of contents of those I thought might be immediately useful to me. That is, of those I might actually bother to do. I marked 9 such exercises; 3 from Pt. 2 (metaphor and image), 1 from Pt. 3 (aspects of voice), 3 from Pt. 4 ("Truth in Strangeness"), 1 from Pt. 5 (structure), and 1 from Pt. 7 (revision). All in all, I think that is a fair amount. And no doubt, if I can bring myself to do some of these then I imagine that I might be inspired to do others.
Nine out of 88 is over 10% that I found immediately useful and doable. I call that a pretty good bargain seeing as I got the book from amazon for $10.99.
If you are a highly self-motivated poet who finds or invents prompts and writing exercises on your own then you might not need this book, although that is not to say that you would get nothing from it. But if you are looking for ideas, or if you invest more authority in "official" teachers than in other sources of ideas, you might well get some help and guidance from this book.
Keep in mind that this book can be read and used in any order. It is meant to be dipped into as need and interest drive one, and not necessarily read cover to cover as I did.
Yes, my star rating seems higher than my write-up but I am accounting for the quality of the book and not my general laziness and lack of doing in regards to self-help books.
thndrkat's review against another edition
5.0
A great resource for writing exercises, prompts, ideas, and encouragement.
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