Table of Contents
Introduction 1
I Descriptive Details
Craft Talk: From Detail to Discovery Ellen Bass 5
Poem and Prompt: "Dreaming Alabama" Melanie McCabe 7
Sample Poems
"Land of the Southwind" Lisa Hase-Jackson 10
"Dreaming the Garden State" Deborah Gerrish 11
Poem and Prompt: "Old Man Wandering the Roads" Jesse Graves 12
Commentary: Gathering the Details Jesse Graves 15
Sample Poems
"Aunt Ed" Betsy Thorne 16
"Nilla" Yvonne Zipter 17
Poem and Prompt: "What You Missed That Day You Were Absent from Fourth Grade" Brad Aaron Modlin 18
Sample Poems
"What You Missed While You Were Home Sleeping Off a Saturday Afternoon Drunk" Lynne Knight 21
"How Your Favorite Aunt Made Spring Your Favorite Season" Shayla Hawkins 23
Bonus Prompts: Descriptive Details Lance Larsen 25
II Diction
Craft Talk: Veering Your Diction W. Todd Kaneko 29
Poem and Prompt: "Entreaty" Catherine Pierce 31
Sample Poems
"Dear October" Libby Bernardin 34
"Aesthetics of the Sublime" Kate Sontag 35
Poem and Prompt: "Respair" Craig van Rooyen 37
Commentary: Finding the Words Craig van Rooyen 40
Sample Poems
"Tartle" KB Ballentine 42
"Meet Me at the Growlery" Lucy Griffith 43
Poem and Prompt: "The Word Swagger" George Drew 44
Sample Poems
"Moxie" Geraldine Connolly 46
"At Least 17 Definitions" Tina Kelley 48
Bonus Prompts: Diction Caitlin Doyle 49
III Imagery
Craft Talk: Four Hills and a Cloud Lauren Camp 53
Poem and Prompt: "Learned at Last Night's Lecture on Dementia" Pam Baggett 55
Sample Poems
"Dad's Last ER Visit" Jemshed Khan 58
"Weeks Waiting for Her Release" Jenna Rindo 59
Poem and Prompt: "Girlhood Landscape" Sara Moore Wagner 60
Commentary: Coloring the Poem Sara Moore Wagner 62
Sample Poems
"I Want to Be a Gladiola" Ann Fisher-Wirth 63
"Skunk Cabbage" Penny Harter 64
Poem and Prompt: "Photo in a Photo" Lynn McGee 65
Sample Poems
"Leave Meeting" Bruce E. Whitacre 68
"After Seeing a Photograph of Flamingos" Emily Franklin 70
Bonus Prompts: Imagery Adele Kenny 71
IV Sound Devices
Craft Talk: Reveling in Rhyme Annie Finch 75
Poem and Prompt: "Diagnosis in Reverse" Kate Gaskin 77
Sample Poems
"Undoing Third-Degree Burns" Shannon K. Winston 80
"Unstepping into Divorce" Christen Noel Kauffman 82
Poem and Prompt: "Nashville After Hours" Ada Limón 83
Sample Poems
"Latonia Racetrack at Cooldown" Nancy Susanna Breen 86
"Desperado, Slightly Drunk and Off-Key" Jennifer Saunders 87
Poem and Prompt: "My Mother's Heart in Troubling Times" Lois Marie Harrod 88
Commentary: My Mother's One-Sentence Heart Lois Marie Harrod 91
Sample Poems
"My Mother's Hands" Dion O'Reilly 92
"He'd Promised All of Us His Hand" Lisken Van Pelt Dus 93
Bonus Prompts: Sound Devices Michael T. Young 95
V Repetition
Craft Talk: Playing It by Ear David Graham 99
Poem and Prompt: "Facetime" George Bilgere 102
Sample Poems
"One Thing I Desire" KB Ballentine 105
"Expirations" Jenna Rindo 106
Poem and Prompt: "still in a state of uncreation" Camille Dungy 107
Commentary: Repeating Myself Camille Dungy 109
Sample Poems
"As leaky a vessel as was ever made" Jayne Brown 110
"The whole earth is like a poem" Deborah Gerrish 111
Poem and Prompt: "Superstition" Robert Fillman 112
Sample Poems
"Step on a Crack" Penny Harter 115
"Allergic Superstition" Lynn Domina 116
Bonus Prompts: Repetition J. C. Todd 117
VI Figurative Language: Simile
Craft Talk: It's Like This Danusha Laméris 121
Poem and Prompt: "Rewinding an Overdose on a Projector" Sean Shearer 123
Commentary: The Function of Similes Sean Shearer 126
Sample Poems
"Do Over" Nina Bennett 127
"Slow-Motion Reverse-Replay, Myocardial Infarction" Karen Paul Holmes 128
Poem and Prompt: "New Restrictions" Dean Young 129
Sample Poems
"Warning" Cathy Colman 132
"Of the Eternal Waters" Ann Fisher-Wirth 134
Bonus Prompts: Simile Catherine Doty 135
VII Figurative Language: Metaphor
Craft Talk: Metaphor as Lowrider Jan Beatty 139
Poem and Prompt: "I Am Pamela Pan" Tina Kelley 141
Commentary: Persona Poem as Opportunity Tina Kelley 144
Sample Poems
"Elegy for Goliath" Jane Mary Curran 145
"Sarabelle Crusoe" Charlotte Mandel 146
Poem and Prompt: "How to Swallow an Elephant" Frank X Walker 148
Sample Poems
"How to Set a Squirrel Free" Elizabeth S. Wolf 151
"How to Make a Paper Heart" Robert Fillman 152
Poem and Prompt: "My Invisible Horse and the Speed of Human Decency" Matthew Olzmann 153
Sample Poems
"This dumb thing" Jenny Hubbard 156
"Owls Mean Death" Denise Low 158
Bonus Prompts: Metaphor Joy Gaines-Friedler 159
VIII Figurative Language: Personification
Craft Talk: The Humanizing Power of Personification Meg Kearney 163
Poem and Prompt: "Hunt" David O'Connell 165
Sample Poems
"A Mind at Home with Itself" Marcia LeBeau 167
"In the Brief Inverted Room of My Fractured Ankle" Ronda Piszk Broatch 168
Poem and Prompt: "The Disappointment of the Cantaloupes" Dara Yen Elerath 169
Commentary: Personification as Energizer Dara Yen Elerath 171
Sample Poems
"The Pining Goldfish" Robin Rosen Chang 172
"Blooms" Holiday Goldfarb 173
Bonus Prompts: Personification Kerrin McCadden 174
IX Figurative Language: Hyperbole
Craft Talk: Firing Fred and the Power of Hyperbole Peter E. Murphy 177
Poem and Prompt: "A Rogue Dream" Melanie Figg 180
Commentary: Hyperbole and the Dream Convention Melanie Figg 183
Sample Poems
"Hide-and-Seek" Erin Murphy 184
"Natural Disaster" Jessica de Koninck 186
Poem and Prompt: "Love Poem without a Drop of Hyperbole" Traci Brimhall 187
Sample Poems
"Love Poem with Old-Fashioned Extravagance" Gail Comorat 190
"February, Don't Let the Door Hit You on Your Way Out" Kim Klugh 191
Bonus Prompts: Hyperbole BJ Ward 193
X Figurative Language: Apostrophe
Craft Talk: Apostrophe as Shortcut to Discovery Dion O'Reilly 197
Poem and Prompt: "The End of the Pier" Nicole Callihan 200
Sample Poems
"To the Top of Hawk Mountain" Michael T. Young 202
"At the Trailways Bus Depot" Kim Klugh 203
Poem and Prompt: "Ode to Tissue" Adam Tavel 204
Sample Poems
"In Praise of the Potato" Maren O. Mitchell 207
"Ode to the Afternoon Moon" Denise Low 209
Poem and Prompt: "To My Pacemaker" James Scruton 210
Commentary: Apostrophe as Matchmaker James Scruton 213
Sample Poems
"To My Titanium" Joan Mazza 214
"To the Two Screws in My Left Hand" Diane LeBlanc 215
Bonus Prompts: Apostrophe Patricia Clark 216
XI Syntax
Craft Talk: The Elusive Art of the Line Break Marilyn L. Taylor 219
Poem and Prompt: "Abandoned Shacks in North Carolina" Rob Shapiro 222
Sample Poems
"Rahway, New Jersey: The Old House" Adele Kenny 225
"In Greenland, Glaciers Fall" Maureen Doallas 226
Poem and Prompt: "Farmers' Market" George Bilgere 227
Sample Poems
"At the Theatre" Lisken Van Pelt Dus 230
"Butterfly Exhibit" Patricia Clark 231
Poem and Prompt: "Senior Cut Day" Jared Harél 232
Commentary: The Music in the Syntax Jared Harél 234
Sample Poems
"High School Dance" Elizabeth S. Wolf 235
"College Senior: Vocational Blues" Patricia Clark 236
Bonus Prompts: Syntax Jennifer Franklin 237
XII Sonnet
Craft Talk: Bead on a String Diane Seuss 241
Poem and Prompt: "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes" Beth Copeland 244
Commentary: Fusing Old and New in the Sonnet Beth Copeland 246
Sample Poems
"My Heart Flapped Like a Rag in My Ears" Kate Sontag 247
"When in the chronicle of wasted time" Robin Chapman 248
Poem and Prompt: "Caligynephobia" Jessica Piazza 249
Sample Poems
"Monophobia" Andrea Hollander 252
"Arachnophobe's Sonnet" Linda Simone 254
Poem and Prompt: "Freeblown" Elise Hempel 255
Sample Poems
"Taming the Pieces: Collage" Scott Wiggerman 257
"Songbird, I Offer You Refuge" Kersten Christianson 258
Bonus Prompts: Sonnets Jeffrey Bean 259
XIII Odd Forms
Craft Talk: What Does a Poem Want to Be? Tami Haaland 263
Poem and Prompt: "Triolets on a Dune Shack" Carolyne Wright 266
Sample Poems
"You Set a Fun Table, Betsy" Denise Utt 269
"After the Call from the Animal Welfare Office: A Triple Triolet" Luanne Castle 270
Poem and Prompt: "Balloon Shop" Matthew Yeager 271
Sample Poems
"The Cry of Coral" Tiel Aisha Ansari 274
"Possibility" Athena Kildegaard 275
Poem and Prompt: "You Call with the Diagnosis" J.P. Grasser 276
Commentary: We Hybrid Animals J.P. Grasser 279
Sample Poems
"The Scan Shows Hydrocephalus" Kory Wells 281
"Across the Great Divide" Janet Ruth 282
Bonus Prompts: Invented Forms Allison Joseph 283
Contributors 285
Credits 299
Index 303
About the Editor 309