To celebrate the almost end of this particular chapter of my life, I thought I’d share some of the books on the craft of poetry that influenced me the most over the past three years in grad school. In compiling this list, I wanted to focus on books that might be useful to brand new poets, as well as anyone looking to brush up on their knowledge. 

It was hard to narrow my list down to the five poetry books included below, but I think they offer a great starting place for beginning and experienced poets alike.  

1. The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux 

This was the first book on the craft of poetry I bought as a graduate student and one that I recommend to almost everyone who tells me they’re interested in writing poetry. 

When I first started grad school, I quickly realized that I didn’t have a lot of background knowledge on the nuts and bolts of crafting a poem. Sure, I could write poems, but ask me to explain how or why I made certain choices, and I’d be at a loss for words. 

Enter The Poet’s Companion. Divided into four parts, Addonizzio and Laux’s book includes chapters on subjects for poems, the craft of poetry, the writing life (including dealing with writer’s block and self-doubt), and a section of writing exercises. 

I found the language of The Poet’s Companion to be warm and inviting, which makes this an excellent book for poets who are just starting out. The writing exercises are also very helpful and can be used in the classroom or workshops.  

2. A Little Book on Form: An Exploration into the Formal Imagination of Poetry by Robert Hass

Over four hundred pages long, Hass’s Little Book on Form is anything but little. Expansive and covering almost every form imaginable, this book has been an excellent reference to me as I read and attempt to deconstruct and analyze the books on my reading list. 

How is a sonnet constructed? How might we analyze a prose poem? What does “scanning” a poem mean? And what the heck is a variable stanza? Hass covers all these subjects and more. 

What I really appreciate about this book is that it doesn’t read like a glossary, but more like a conversation. The chapters consist of short, informal “notes” on each form discussed, and I found Hass’s analyses to be especially helpful as I work to develop and hone my own understanding of poetic form and structure.  

3. A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon: New (Soma)Tics by CAConrad

Overwhelmed and looking for reading recommendations in my first semester of grad school, I visited one of my professors and asked for “something different.” CAConrad’s A Beautiful Marsupial Afternoon is one of the books my professor handed me.

I would argue that this book isn’t necessarily a book on the craft of poetry (not like The Poet’s Companion, anyway), however, it is a great book of exercises, and it is deliciously unconventional. 

To give you a little taste of the wonderfulness of this book, here’s an excerpt from one of the writing exercises: 

“What is the best Love you’ve ever had in this world? Be quiet while thinking about that Love. If someone comes along and starts talking, quietly shoo them away, you’re busy, you’re a poet with a penny in your mouth. . . . Now get your pen and paper and write about POVERTY, write line after line about starvation and deprivation from the voice of one who has been Loved in this world.” 

If you’re interested in experimental poetry or are looking for less conventional writing exercises, then CAConrad—and this book—are must-reads. 

4. The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within by Stephen Fry

In his foreword to The Ode Less Travelled, Stephen Fry writes: “I have a dark and dreadful secret. I write poetry.” 

So begins a humorous, and very practical, guide to reading and writing poetry. This is another book I like to recommend to beginning poets, as Fry’s tone is incredibly encouraging and easy to understand. Like The Poet’s Companion, there are plenty of writing exercises included throughout the book, however, Fry focuses more on craft elements and form rather than subject matter. 

5. Madness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures by Mary Ruefle

I cheated a little by adding this book to the list since it’s technically not a craft book, but Mary Ruefle’s lectures on poetry, literature, and writing are absolutely captivating, and I really enjoyed the inclusion of personal anecdotes, as well as the instructive quality of the lectures. 

I actually stumbled upon this book when I was researching witchcraft and poetry, and though Madness, Rack, and Honey is definitely not a book about witchcraft, I think it captures the strangeness and magic of poetry in a way that feels a whole lot like witchcraft. 

For instance, check out this beautiful gem from Ruefle’s “Poetry and the Moon”: “I am convinced that the first lyric poem was written at night, and that the moon was witness to the event and that the event was witness to the moon.”

Magical, right? 

Conclusion

Back to you, poets!

Tell us in the comments: Are there any books on the craft of poetry I haven’t mentioned here that you’ve found particularly helpful?

Manuela Williams lives and writes in Nevada. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks and one paranormal fiction novella. When she’s not writing, Manuela loves reading romance novels, drinking *all* the coffee, and playing video games.

The post The Poet’s Toolbox: Must-Read Books on the Craft of Poetry appeared first on DIY MFA.

A full-length poetry collection is typically between 50 and 98 pages. Sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. If you have fewer than 50 pages, you’ll be looking at a chapbook manuscript, which is typically between 25 and 30 pages. If you’re thinking about submitting your manuscript to presses or contests, make sure you keep these page ranges in mind, as some presses specifically request chapbooks (as opposed to full-length manuscripts) and vice-versa. 

It can be challenging to compile and organize a collection of poetry. Depending on your material, you won’t always have a clear beginning, middle, and end like a novel might. 

However, despite not being novels or short stories, I think some of the best poetry collections still have some kind of developmental arc. 

Maybe, like the original arrangement of Sylvia Plath’s Ariel, they trace the breakup of a marriage before ending with the images of spring, hope, and renewal. Or maybe, like Kim Addonizio’s Jimmy and Rita, the collection serves as a novel in verse, tracking the development and relationship between the two title characters. 

The arrangement of poems in a collection shouldn’t be random. Instead, think of the individual poems, through their arrangement, as working together to create larger meaning. When readers finish the last poem in your collection, what message do you want them to take away from the collection as a whole (as opposed to the messages of individual poems)? 

Here are some ways to think about arranging your poems to maximize the larger ideas and messages as you organize a collection. 

Start with Your Strongest Poems

Generally, when readers pick up your collection, they begin by reading the first few poems to determine whether to keep reading or not (very similar to readers of novels and short stories!). So it’s always a good idea to start your collection off with your strongest work. Think of the first few poems as your “hook.” If you don’t hook your readers early enough, they’ll put your book down. 

It might also be helpful to think about your first few poems as teaching your reader how the rest of your collection will unfold. 

What major themes will you be exploring? What problems will your collection address?

Organize a Collection by Narrative Arc or Emotional Development

If you find the majority of your poems revolve around a similar theme, event, or problem, consider arranging your poems in a way that mirrors a more traditional narrative arc, with a beginning, middle, and end. 

For example, let’s say you’ve written a series of poems about the death of a close family member. You could potentially arrange the collection in three different parts—poems that focus on the time before the family member’s death (perhaps developing the speaker’s relationship with the family member), poems that deal directly with the death, and, finally, poems that deal with the aftermath of death. This is a very rough outline, but it does show a narrative arc. 

Another option could be to focus on emotional development. You might focus on how a speaker (or multiple speakers) develop over the course of a collection. To use the Sylvia Plath example from above, if you’re writing about the breakdown of a relationship, you could start from a place of endings and brokenness and move towards a sense of wholeness and hope. 

Organize a Collection by Theme or Subject Matter

If your poems are more varied, consider arranging them by theme or subject matter. That said, in order to ensure your collection feels cohesive, make sure your themes are connected in some way. 

For example, if the main theme of your collection is loss, you might consider sections containing poems that deal with loss in different ways. If you write nature poetry, you could consider arranging the poems based on setting, or even season. 

If you find that your poems are a little too varied—to the point where the transitions between poems or sections feels jarring—you might need to cut some poems that don’t necessarily fit with the major themes of the collection. 

And that’s okay! 

This happened to me a lot when I was preparing a first draft of my own poetry manuscript. Although I absolutely loved some of the poems individually, I ended up having to cut them because they didn’t really fit with the narrative arc I had planned for the collection. 

Again, this is totally normal, and it doesn’t mean that you have to scrap the poem or poems entirely. Perhaps they can be a part of a different manuscript!  

Experiment!

The tips and tricks I’ve given above are pretty traditional and they definitely shouldn’t be viewed as hard and fast rules. Don’t be afraid to try out more experimental arrangements for your collection. The poems in Like by A.E. Stallings are arranged in alphabetical order, for example, and Tommy Pico’s IRL doesn’t contain individual poems or sections at all, rather, the collection is composed of one long poem! 

Have fun with it and, remember, you can always keep rearranging your collection until you’re 100% happy with it. 

Manuela Williams lives and writes in Nevada. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks and one paranormal fiction novella. When she’s not writing, Manuela loves reading romance novels, drinking *all* the coffee, and playing video games.

The post The Poet’s Toolbox: How to Organize a Collection appeared first on DIY MFA.