Includes bibliographical references and index.

Based on the idea that poetry, like any art, is best mastered through practice, this handbook for poets combines poetry-writing exercises with personal essays by each contributing poet. Some of the poets represented in the handbook are: Maxine Kumin, Rita Dove, Roger Mitchell, Carol Muske, Sydney Lea, and J. D. McClatchy. The exercises in the handbook address a broad range of topics: the struggle for inspiration, transforming memory and experience into writing, the process of revision, experimenting with formal structure, as well as many others. The collection of more than 90 tested and proven exercises is designed to stimulate the imagination and increase technical flexibility and control. Two appendixes contain a mail-order source list of poetry books and a list of published works referred to in the text. (NKA