John Drury (2) (1950–)

I picked up this book because someone in an Amazon review called Creating Poetry a "muse disguised as paper". It may not go that far, but it's close. This book is full of writing prompts, each focused on the chapter's subject, from Beginnings to Tone, Form, Research, Sound, Inspiration and more. There is plenty here for a poet to use and learn from, especially if they flip around from section to section, picking out prompts on an area of their writing they want to focus on. (I don't think show more the best use is to read it from cover to cover as I did).

Occasionally, I thought the prompts for a particular subject were to specific, however, Drury encourages you to use this book as a jumping off point. It's not necessary to follow the prompts to the letter, if the poem goes off in another direction.

This book is definitely worth a flip through to peruse and play with the prompts within. show less

This is one of the best comprehensive books I have found, especially when it comes to talking about forms. It's full of interesting prompts grouped by topic or form. Some sections are a little basic, but it makes for a good overview of writing poetry and is a perfect reference for any poet.

A good if somewhat dated tutorial on creating poetry. Readable with useful hints.

An OK basic book on writing poetry.