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Summary
Contemporary poets offer behind-the-scenes perspectives on the poetic process.
This diverse collection of poems and companion essays by forty nationally and internationally known poets allows readers to experience the creative process through the eyes and voice of each poet. No matter how often we are told that revision is an essential component of poetic composition, it can be difficult to resist the temptation to think of the poem as having sprung spontaneously, Athena-like, from the writer’s head. By exposing readers to the finished product as well as the poet’s own account of the poem’s creation, Making Poems offers a behind-the-scenes perspective on the poetic process that will fascinate both beginning and established writers. The book also affords poetry instructors an opportunity to demonstrate to their students the ways in which poems can originate from seemingly mundane and unlikely sources.
“A valuable addition to one’s personal library for all writers and readers of poetry, this anthology finds its rightful position among the tradition of entertaining and enlightening books in which authors discuss poetic craft or the creative process with a cogent blend of practical wisdom and refreshing clarity.” — Edward Byrne
“This collection is a gift to creative writing classrooms everywhere. Rather than literal explanations of the text, these are fascinating explorations of the creative process, achieving the intimacy of a live reading.” — Faith Adiele
Poets include Jan Beatty, Robin Becker, Fleda Brown, J. L. Conrad, Jim Daniels, Todd Davis, Chris Dombrowski, Dan Gerber, Jeff Gundy, Kimiko Hahn, William Heyen, H. L. Hix, John Hoppenthaler, Ann Hostetler, Julia Spicher Kasdorf, David Kirby, Gerry LaFemina, Mary Linton, Shara McCallum, Dinty W. Moore, Erin Murphy, Mary Rose O’Reilley, Lee Peterson, Greg Rappleye, Keith Ratzlaff, Jack Ridl, Steven Sherrill, David Shumate, Aaron Smith, Lucien Stryk, Mary Swander, Sue Ellen Thompson, Natasha Threthewey, Brian Turner, Lee Upton, G. C. Waldrep, Michael Waters, Patricia Jabbeh Wesley, Katharine Whitcomb, and Robert Wrigley.
Todd Davis, winner of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, is the author or editor of several books of literary and cultural criticism, as well as three volumes of poetry: Ripe, Some Heaven, and The Least of These. Erin Murphy is the author of three volumes of poetry: Science of Desire, Too Much of This World, and Dislocation and Other Theories, which won the Paterson Prize for Literary Excellence. Both Davis and Murphy serve on the English and creative writing faculty at the Pennsylvania State University, Altoona College.
Table of Contents
Learning to Make Poems—An Introduction
Red Sugar
Finding Red Sugar Jan Beatty
Man of the Year
Strange Tercets: Merry Men,
Iambic Feet, and Poetic Transgression Robin Becker
Knot Tying Lessons: The Slip Knot
The Knot of the Poem Fleda Brown
Brother André’s Heart: Montreal, 2003
Tenebrae: Living In/Among Shadows J. L. Conrad
Factory Jungle
OK for Shipment Jim Daniels
Loving the Flesh
The Body of Poetry Todd Davis
Elegy with Fall’s Last Filaments
On “Elegy with Fall’s Last Filaments” Chris Dombrowski
To W. S. Merwin
Translating My Way into a Poem Dan Gerber
Contemplation with Ledges and Moon
Writing into the Evening Jeff Gundy
Pink
On “Pink” Kimiko Hahn
Longhouse
From the Out-There William Heyen
Awash with blushing textures,
your hips, lipped lilies
There Is No Avoiding H. L. Hix
Dance
Shut Up & Dance John Hoppenthaler
Sonnets for the Amish Girls of Nickel Mines
Every Buggy Has Four Wheels:
Making “Sonnets for the Amish Girls
of Nickel Mines” Ann Hostetler
Double the Digits
Memory and the Problem of
What Really Happened Julia Spicher Kasdorf
Borges at the Northside Rotary
The Deliberate Transformed
by the Accidental David Kirby
Clown Baby’s Summer
The Natural Birth of Clown Baby,
or How I Came to Midwife, Father, and
Wet-nurse a Prose Poem Sequence
The Conception of Clown Baby Gerry LaFemina
Up Late with Loons
Making Peace Mary Linton
Penelope
The Biography of a Poem Shara McCallum
Revelation
The Poem Stripped Bare by Her Author Dinty W. Moore
Covetous
Coveting Thy Neighbor’s Poem
Mary Rose O’Reilley The Third Winter
The Wild Horse Erin Murphy
Anniversary
Anything Worthwhile Lee Peterson
Orpheus, Gathering the Trees
In the Woodlot Greg Rappleye
Sunday
An Essay with Two Short Lectures:
Revising “Sunday” Keith Ratzlaff
Repairing the Hous
The Poem and I Have a Little Conversation Jack Ridl
Coming Out of Caliban
Are You Watching? Steven Sherrill
Revising My Memoirs
Cutting Logic Loose from Its Tethers David Shumate
Christopher Street Pier (Summer)
Against Solitude Aaron Smith
Blood
On “Blood” Lucien Stryk
Hot Pads, Cold Pads
On the Writing of “Hot Pads, Cold Pads” Mary Swander
Fishing on the Merrimack, My Father
Sees a B-24
Prisoner of War
From Sunday Supplement to Sonnet
Sequence: A Poet’s Gift to Herself Sue Ellen Thompson
Myth
Mythmaking Natasha Trethewey
At the Farmer’s Market in Eugene
In a Country at War Brian Turner
The Weak Already Inherited
Response Lee Upton
Anniversary
Revisiting the Anniversary:
A Ghost Story G. C. Waldrep
Beloved
The Eccentric Discipline Michael Waters
Wesley Leaving
Leaving to Find Place in the Making
of a Poem Patricia Jabbeh
How Flatterers Must Be Shunned
The Prince’s Almond Trees: “How Flatterers Must Be Shunned” Katharine Whitcomb
A Lock of Her Hair
The Charm by Which I
Meant to Bring Her Back Robert Wrigley
