The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets by Ted KooserMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is an excellent book, not about how to write poetry, but how to make your poetry better. Kooser, an amazing poet and one of my favorites, writes that we should consider our audience when writing. Who will be reading our poems? Don't talk about them or below them, but to them. Also, he writes about the subtle art of using simile vs metaphor and how each instance can vary. He gave examples of works and showed how to make it better or how changing it to a different way would not have worked or sound chopped. He talked of the importance of writing your poetry, then setting it aside for a "cooling" period. Looking at it later with fresh eyes with enough distance, you should be able to find where your writing is unclear or word choice is off. Really makes me want to drag out all of my old poetry and rework it.
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