Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words

Straightforward, 'Poemcrazy' is a passionate rallying call to get the poet out of you. In fact, the whole book ultimately gets down to only one piece of advice: if you want to write poetry, then get yourself a pen and notebook and, go jot down the world around you in all its 'ordinary magic' (an expression the author acknowledgingly stole from Alan Ginsberg).

That's it but gosh! How enthusiastic she is! Her heartfelt passion and consuming drive is actually what makes it all a worthy read.

Reading like a diary serving random thoughts, very sensual and totally engaged with the world around her, Susan Woooldridge indeed shows pages after pages that everything and anything can serve as material for poetry.

Yet, this book is quite easy to show more dismiss. Here's just encouragements and prompts with absolutely nothing on technique and prosody. It's quite repetitive. She clearly gets carried away towards the end. Her wild enthusiasm may also seem plain silly or annoying at times, although contagious (see how she writes about e. e. cummings or Walt Withman). Hence, it certainly is not a necessary read.

Having said that, I still think it's a pleasant book to go through not least because, on a strictly personal level, some of her points particularly resonated with me.

First, I too like to keep list of words to pick in and associate until something creative comes up. Then because, I also completely adhere to her view that poetry is mainly about images.

All in all then, even if there's nothing at all on the technical side of the craft, once you forgive her for stating the obvious and leave aside her at time over the top enthusiasm here's a very friendly and passionate invite into the realm of poetry. It's just that, but it does it very well. show less

I bought this book, poemcrazy, by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, at The Bookstore in Chico, California, whole visiting my daughter who is going to college there at Chico State University. I picked it up because of both the title and the photo on the cover, never having heard of the book or the author before. It was truly a hidden little gem that day in a room full of possibilities. Part way through reading the book, I searched for and found the author on goodreads and Facebook. I sent her a friend request and a message telling her how much I was loving her book and how inspiring it is. She accepted my friend request and wrote back. We’ve since corresponded, and I’ve signed up for a poetry through art writing workshop with her.

This show more book has become my all-time favorite book about poetry and how to write it, and it’s also in my top two books about writing in general. My copy is now lovingly highlighted and annotated, and I can’t wait to start using some of Susan’s ideas in my creative writing class. Not only does this book inspire creativity and new ways of playing with words, but also it is wonderfully written and just plain fun to read. It has taken its place among my top 20 books of all time. show less

This book is terrific for anyone who wants to have fun with poetry; it is particularly good for beginners. This woman is in love with the art of word manipulation. It is NOT A BOOK FOR THOSE WHO TAKE POETRY SERIOUSLY EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY.

Though that should be obvious from the woman doing a leap on the cover, not to mention the title.

Introduce your kids (and yourself) to poetry that is not all sonnets and forced "depth." It's remarkable what sort of depth you can find from found words, random bits of paper, and a walk.

This book was so saccharine and fluffy and downright insipid that it actually made me angry to read it! Seriously, this woman lives in some kind of fantasy land, and I simply couldn’t stomach it.

Its full of advice like “Cut words out of magazines and paste them to cardboard. Label things around you! Label your refridgerator “Some pigâ€?! And she goes on to regale us with stories of how much her children loved cutting out words and labeling things around the house. It was like a Captain Kangaroo flashback.

Gaah, that’s just one example and already I feel the need to take a shower. But I can’t judge the book because for some fluffy little bunnies who want to write poems about children playing in the rain and show more flowers and home baked cookies, its probably a fine book. I just prefer my poetry to have some depth… show less

I liked the premise and playfulness expressed in the subtitle (freeing you life with words) of this poetry manual. I hesitate to call it anything so dry as a manual since the promise of the subtitle is fulfilled when one practices the ideas in the book. However, I considered it freeing the mind.

This is one of those writing guides where every exercise or tidbit of advice is paired with a story. Even the most bland remembrances suddenly become fodder for writing, even I know that as a writer, but it doesn't mean I want a writing guide made up of them. I was hoping for something with a bit more teeth.

My goal is to write novels, not poems, but this book (and others) help me focus on word, mood, and scene. Wooldridge helped me disengage my Inner Editor and revel in the words.