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Synopsis
Provides aspiring poets guidance on writing poetry.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poet's Portable Workshop
I write. I write at work - reports, newsletters and such; and I write for pleasure too. I love writing. But poetry intimidates me - not because I think it arty and inaccessible but because it is the ultimate of all of the written arts. It distils writing to the minimum number of words necessary to do the job and presents it in such a way as to get inside your head and do judo.
Consequently I have made only a few attempts to write a poem, and each time have come away from the experience depressed at my clumsy, awkward attempts to express some deep and meaningful experience.
Steve Kowit knows what that is like. He takes you, in a series of interesting and enjoyable exercises, through the process of distilling art from memory. Even the exercises of recovering memories are fascinating as he helps you remember descriptive details of things long forgotten, before helping you to commit them to paper.
Importantly though, the best bit about this book is that it gives you confidence to have a go, and at least have half of an idea whether what you are trying to create is poetry.
However, don't come to this book expecting someone to learn about Pantoums, Sonnets or Villanelles - lessons about strict poetic form are not what this book is about. This is a book to help you stretch your wings and take the first step of the edge of the nest, before deciding whether you want a go at fitting your fledgling poems into a poetic-metrical box.
I loved the book - and keep loving it each time I go back to it.
You're still not seeing my poems though!
I write. I write at work - reports, newsletters and such; and I write for pleasure too. I love writing. But poetry intimidates me - not because I think it arty and inaccessible but because it is the ultimate of all of the written arts. It distils writing to the minimum number of words necessary to do the job and presents it in such a way as to get inside your head and do judo.
Consequently I have made only a few attempts to write a poem, and each time have come away from the experience depressed at my clumsy, awkward attempts to express some deep and meaningful experience.
Steve Kowit knows what that is like. He takes you, in a series of interesting and enjoyable exercises, through the process of distilling art from memory. Even the exercises of recovering memories are fascinating as he helps you remember descriptive details of things long forgotten, before helping you to commit them to paper.
Importantly though, the best bit about this book is that it gives you confidence to have a go, and at least have half of an idea whether what you are trying to create is poetry.
However, don't come to this book expecting someone to learn about Pantoums, Sonnets or Villanelles - lessons about strict poetic form are not what this book is about. This is a book to help you stretch your wings and take the first step of the edge of the nest, before deciding whether you want a go at fitting your fledgling poems into a poetic-metrical box.
I loved the book - and keep loving it each time I go back to it.
You're still not seeing my poems though!
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
There are quite a few books on the market designed to help the budding poet, but this is streets ahead of most of them. Kowit covers everything from beginnings, through verse forms old and new, all the way to advice on poetry workshops and getting published. The book is packed with great ideas and with exercises that really do get you into regular writing. He looks at a range of unconventional poetic forms too which most 'how to' guides leave out. The book is fun, informal without being superficial, and a rich resource that's worth revisiting again and again. Of all the writing guides I've read, this is the one that has had by the far the greatest impact on me - I can't recommend it highly enough!
39 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the best book I've read on poetry writing (and I've read a lot of 'em). It helped and inspired me to write so many poems and I learned so much from the book and the exercises included.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Steve Kowit is a god!
Okay, well, maybe not a god, but an amazing man from whom I was honored to take a poetry workshop class. Read more
Published on 16 Dec 1998
This is an essential for every poet's reference library.
Steve Kowit manages to light up the dark and fearful corners of resistance to writing poetry. His thorough treatment of the nuts and bolts of writing traverse the murky realms for... Read more
Published on 15 Feb 1998
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