Books on learning to write Poetry.

Mary Oliver's A Poetry Handbook and the Norton Anthology of Poetry

There's a good book I read a few years back called Triggering Town, I believe. But my memory's notoriously unreliable.

In any case. Yeah. Good.

Yep, the Norton Anthology -- reading lots of it is an excellent way to start.

Ted Kooser (the recent US Poet Laureate) has written a book called The Poetry Home Repair Manual.

And please, if you like, tell your mum she's welcome to lurk here and decide when she feels like joining in.

Poet beat me to it. The home repair manual has a good basic approach.
Reading lots of poetry is also good advice.

I've got one checked out of the library right now by the author of Under the Tuscan Sun (a great book in its own right). The author, Frances Mayes, is an English teacher at the university level, and has written an introductory poetry book titled The Discovery of Poetry, in which she covers all the basics and includes poetry samplings.

Two other books I have are Creating Poetry, by John Drury, and The Art of Poetry Writing, by William Packard. Creating Poetry has 12 chapters on all the different elements, with examples, exercises, and prompts. Packard's book is also at the introductory level, and is considered by many to be a classic.

Hope she enjoys the new challenge, and visits our poetry forum, too.

I must also agree with the above. Ted Kooser and Mary Oliver's books are great. "The Poetry Home Repair Manua" is so easy to read, Kooser is a great teacher. I also recommend:" The Art & Craft of Poetry" by Michael J. Bugeja.

Trudi,

The best way to learn to write Poetry is to read as much of it as you can, decide what you like and why, begin by emulating and then write write write until you find your own voice.

All of the books above should be helpful in seeing how Poets use the tools of their craft and how you can too but two that have been of value to me are
"Sound and Sense" by Lawrence Perrine, (which was the first Poetry text I studied in college in the 60s and is now in it's 11th Edition.) and "The Poet And The Poem" by Judson Jerome, which is on line in it's original, (unrevised) version at
http://www.poetrycritic.com/poetry_c...ndthepoem.html as both go to great lengths to examine how Sound and Sense interact to create meaning and how the various tools that a poet has at his/her disposal have been and can be used to create meaningful Poetry. (and both are filled with many examples).

Other than that, you might join your mom in her quest. Who knows, you might have more of a knack for it than you think, and find that you enjoy it as well.

Write On,

Jim Hoye, (JRH)

Hey, the world needs readers as well as writers. Thanks for coming back, Troo. How's your own writing coming along? (Mine is pretty weak at present.)

Troo,

I'm glad you resurrected this thread. I'm looking for beginner books, too. Has your mom read any books for children? I've learned that when tackling ANY new topic, the best place is to start with children's books.

So sad! I learned almost everything I know about physics from children's books. I can't imagine having done it any other way :-0