The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets

This book is pitched at about the undergraduate creative writing class level, which I think fills a gap in what's out there. He has clearly heard a lot of questions from the kind of intelligent students who have just started thinking about what the business of poetry is about, really, and who think they might have something to say but need some orientation on what the important things to concentrate upon might be, and he supplies both advice and illustrations without pretense or condescension. He has also read more than his shore of subpar verse and outright bad doggerel and does not refrain from teaching through these. I don't think I've seen anyone else do anything quite like that in any book of literary criticism before, despite its show more effectiveness. Mainly, he writes as someone who has found the pleasure of composing poetry and would just like to address writers who might enjoy that on their own, with matters of prestige or money or fame pushed into the background. Kooser quotes not only his own poems but also those of his favorite writers, and even an occasional piece of creative prose as illustrations of the points he makes.
As US Poet Laureate, Ted Kooser has had a well-deserved reputation for bringing poetry to more readers. He acknowledges the fear and dread that many people have when confronted with a poem they do not know, and has put together an admirable piece of instruction to counteract this bias. show less

Very helpful as a general introduction to the art of writing poetry for everyone. However, if you are looking for an extensive guide to poetry styles and rules, look somewhere else. Kooser says himself the goal is not to write a "rule book" for poetry- his goal is to give understandable advice for whatever type of poetry you choose to write.

A very good no nonsense guide to writing poetry and revising poetry. He has a strong prejudice for accessible poetry and offers suggestions on how to write poetry that is accessible but still profound. Many of his metaphors and similies for the process of writing and editing make reading the book very enjoyable

This is the poetry writing guide I wish I'd had as a creative writing student in college. Kooser offers nuts-and-bolts advice on everything from working with detail, to form, to metaphor, and he includes plenty of wonderful poems to illustrate what he's talking about. Very well done.

Really very good, and encouraging. Kooser's emphasis on considering the reader and making your poems as transparent as you can, particularly for newer poets, should be taken to heart by more of us.

This is a lovely little book. I don't use it to exactly "work" on my poems but read to inform both my reading & writing. Koosier is clear and his examples pertinent and memorable. A nice to book to read for anyone interested in how language works.

Kooser's approach to poetry is rather basic, and his book is a good introduction to writing poetry. In his first chapter, (the best chapter in my view), he writes of modern poetry's digression into obscurity. We want to impress the academics, so we fill the poem with obscure references. But poetry doesn't require it. Compare this to Kooser's verses, say in his Delights and Shadows, and you can see how accessible his poetry is.
Other subjects in this work are writing for others, prose poems, writing from memory, fine-tuning metaphors and similes. I mention the last chapter specifically because Kooser is very strong in his use of metaphors. In this book he uses mainly his own works as examples.