Finger Exercises for Poets

Finger Exercises for Poets PDF Author: Dorianne Laux
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324050675
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
An illuminating book of concise craft essays and exercises for poets, from Pulitzer Prize finalist and The Poet’s Companion coauthor Dorianne Laux. From “a poet of immense insight and masterful craft” (Kwame Dawes), Finger Exercises for Poets is an engaging and inspiriting invitation to practice poetry alongside one of its masters. With wide-ranging examples from classic and contemporary poets, Dorianne Laux demystifies the magic of language that makes great poetry and offers generative exercises to harness that magic. She explores the syllable and the line, the use of form, poetic responses to contemporary events and personal experiences, the imaginative leap, and the power of a distinct voice. As she writes in the introduction, “My instrument is the immensity of language.… There are eighty-eight keys on a piano, six hundred thousand words in the English language. The patterns, sequences, and permutations of both are endless. For me, language is another kind of music.… I practice poetry. This book invites you to practice along with me.” Throughout, Laux reminds us that poetry is a practice as much as an art and that poets must hone their language as a musician practicing an instrument.

Finger Exercises for Poets

Finger Exercises for Poets PDF Author: Dorianne Laux
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324050675
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 161

Get Book Here

Book Description
An illuminating book of concise craft essays and exercises for poets, from Pulitzer Prize finalist and The Poet’s Companion coauthor Dorianne Laux. From “a poet of immense insight and masterful craft” (Kwame Dawes), Finger Exercises for Poets is an engaging and inspiriting invitation to practice poetry alongside one of its masters. With wide-ranging examples from classic and contemporary poets, Dorianne Laux demystifies the magic of language that makes great poetry and offers generative exercises to harness that magic. She explores the syllable and the line, the use of form, poetic responses to contemporary events and personal experiences, the imaginative leap, and the power of a distinct voice. As she writes in the introduction, “My instrument is the immensity of language.… There are eighty-eight keys on a piano, six hundred thousand words in the English language. The patterns, sequences, and permutations of both are endless. For me, language is another kind of music.… I practice poetry. This book invites you to practice along with me.” Throughout, Laux reminds us that poetry is a practice as much as an art and that poets must hone their language as a musician practicing an instrument.

Finger Exercises

Finger Exercises PDF Author: Henry G. Bertrand
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Book Description


What We Carry

What We Carry PDF Author: Dorianne Laux
Publisher: BOA Editions, Ltd.
ISBN: 1938160371
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description
Finalist, 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Dorianne Laux's poetry is a poetry of risk; it goes to the very edge of extinction to find the hard facts that need to be sung. What We Carry includes poems of survival, poems of healing, poems of affirmation and poems of celebration.

The Book of Men: Poems

The Book of Men: Poems PDF Author: Dorianne Laux
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393080919
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 94

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Book Description
"Laux writes gritty, tough, lyrical poems that depict the actual nature of life in the West today."—Philip Levine The narrative poems in Dorianne Laux's fifth collection charge through the summer of love, where Vietnam casts a long shadow, and into the present day, where she compassionately paints the smoky bars, graffiti, and addiction of urban life. Laux is "continually engaging and, at her best, luminous" (San Diego Union-Tribune). from "To Kiss Frank," make out with him a bit, this is what my friend would like to do oh these too many dead summers later, and as much as I want to stroll with her into the poet's hazy fancy all I can see is O'Hara's long gone lips fallen free of the bone, slumbering beneath the grainy soil.

Poemcrazy

Poemcrazy PDF Author: Susan G. Wooldridge
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307559122
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
Following the success of several recent inspirational and practical books for would-be writers, Poemcrazy is a perfect guide for everyone who ever wanted to write a poem but was afraid to try. Writing workshop leader Susan Wooldridge shows how to think, use one's senses, and practice exercises that will make poems more likely to happen.

Smoke

Smoke PDF Author: Dorianne Laux
Publisher: BOA Editions, Ltd.
ISBN: 193816038X
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
Dorianne Laux’s long-awaited third book of poetry follows her collection, What We Carry, a finalist for the 1994 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. In Smoke, Laux revisits familiar themes of family, working class lives and the pleasures of the body in poetry that is vital and artfully crafted—poetry that "gets hard in the face of aloofness," in the words of one reviewer. In Smoke, as in her previous work, Laux weaves the warp and woof of ordinary lives into extraordinary and complex tapestries. In "The Shipfitter’s Wife," a woman recalls her husband’s homecoming at the end of his work day: Then I’d open his clothes and take the whole day inside me—the ship’s gray sides, the miles of copper pipe, the voice of the foreman clanging off the hull’s silver ribs. Spark of lead kissing metal. The clamp, the winch, the white fire of the torch, the whistle, and the long drive home. And in the title poem, Laux muses on her own guilty pleasures: Who would want to give it up, the coal a cat’s eye in the dark room, no one there but you and your smoke, the window cracked to street sounds, the distant cries of living things. Alone, you are almost safe . . . With her keen ear and attentive eye, Dorianne Laux offers us a universe with which we are familiar, but gives it to us fresh. Dorianne Laux is the author of two previous collections of poetry from BOA Editions, Ltd., and is co-author, with Kim Addonizio, of The Poet’s Companion: A Guide to the Joys of Writing Poetry (W.W. Norton, 1997), chosen as an alternate selection by several bookclubs. Laux was the judge for the 2012 A. Poulin, Jr. Poetry Contest, and is a tenured professor in the creative writing program at the University of Oregon. Laux lives in Eugene, Oregon.

Bang The Keys

Bang The Keys PDF Author: Jill Dearman
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101108711
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
Attention aspiring and working writers alike! Finish your work in four easy steps with this explosion of inspiration. How can aspiring writers-whether aiming for a short story, novel, screenplay, or nonfiction work-gain the confidence they need to follow through on their creative visions.... The answer can be found in this book by a writing coach and university writing professor whose "Bang the Keys" workshop stems from an innovative four-step system that offers practical advice for demonstrated results every time. Step 1: Begin with the strongest idea. Step 2: Arrange the work into a concrete shape. Step 3: Nurture the project with love, so that others can love it, too. Step 4: Go finish, and then let it go so it may live independently in the world. Also included are practical writing exercises that will give readers the tools and the inspiration to finish the writing projects they start ... or bust their fingers trying!

The Book of a Hundred Hands

The Book of a Hundred Hands PDF Author: Cole Swensen
Publisher: University of Iowa Press
ISBN: 1587296470
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
The hand is second only to language in defining the human being, and its constant presence makes it a ready reminder of our humanity, with all its privileges and obligations. In this dazzling collection, Cole Swensen explores the hand from any angle approachable by language and art. Her hope: to exhaust the hand as subject matter; her joy: the fact that she couldn’t. These short poems reveal the hand from a hundred different perspectives. Incorporating sign language, drawing manuals, paintings from the 14th to the 20th century, shadow puppets, imagined histories, positions (the “hand as a boatless sail”), and professions (“the hand as window in which the panes infinitesimal”), Cole Swensen’s fine hand is “that which augments” our understanding and appreciation of “this freak wing,” this “wheel that comforts none” yet remains “a fruit the size and shape of the heart.”

Finger Exercises

Finger Exercises PDF Author: Traumear
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 0244347654
Category : Poetry
Languages : en
Pages : 116

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Book Description
I draw attention to the organic evolution of this work. The titles of the four sections give a hint. We are instinctively touched by human-natural affection. This will at first disturb us, however if we believe it we then make contact with the world not as we prefer or regret it but 'as is'. This implies our contemporary contribution to our community and subsequently we have this amazing advantage of world as sacrament, as existential 'bread and wine', if you like. (Also please to keep in mind that the real link is not visible but invisible)

The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry

The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry PDF Author: Kim Addonizio
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393340880
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
From the nuts and bolts of craft to the sources of inspiration, this book is for anyone who wants to write poetry-and do it well. The Poet's Companion presents brief essays on the elements of poetry, technique, and suggested subjects for writing, each followed by distinctive writing exercises. The ups and downs of writing life—including self-doubt and writer's block—are here, along with tips about getting published and writing in the electronic age. On your own, this book can be your "teacher," while groups, in or out of the classroom, can profit from sharing weekly assignments.