Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Part I: In Preparation

Chapter 1: The Golden String

Chapter 2: Beginning Your Journey— The Writer’s Studio

Chapter 3: Artists in Light and Sound

Chapter 4: Pick-Up Sticks, or The Trick of Being You

Chapter 5: Our Materials—Words

Part II: The Methods

Chapter 6: Poem-Sketching

Chapter 7: Giving the Poem a Form

Chapter 8: Additional Exercises with Poem-Sketching

Chapter 9: “Matching” Poems

Chapter 10: Alternative Thinking

Chapter 11: Shake It Up

Chapter 12: The Poem as Self-Portrait

Chapter 13: The Power of Beliefs

Chapter 14: Voice—Being Yourself on Paper

Chapter 15: Creating Your Own Word Groups

Chapter 16: Life Is the Teacher—Writing Poems from Daily Experience

Chapter 17: Inner and Outer Observation

Chapter 18: Adding Sound

Chapter 19: Reading Other Poets

Chapter 20: Circles of Awareness

Part III: Transformations

Chapter 21: Writing Poetry—The Spiritual Journey

Chapter 22: The Community of Poets

Appendixes

Appendix A: Suggested Reading

Appendix B: Poem-Sketching

Appendix C: Word Groups

About the Author