Author of Best Words, Best Order, Stephen Dobyns offers a helpful framework for creating poetry and navigates contemporary concerns and practices in this accessible guide to poetry. Each of the thirteen chapters includes useful lessons learned from renowned poets’ works, and covers topics such as subject matter, the mechanics of poetry, and the revision process. Dobyns explores the complex relationship between writers and their work, and in the process, demystifies a subtle art form. “Good poetry deals with emotions, and its purpose is not just to give the reader a sense of those emotions, but also to let the reader experience them as directly as possible,” writes Dobyns in the introduction. “For many writers, the world isn’t real until they have put it into language.”
