The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets

From Publishers Weekly Now the 13th Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, the Iowa-born, Nebraska-based Kooser has 40 years' experience in constructing verse. Like Wallace Stevens, Kooser was for many years an insurance executive, and begins chapter one with the following admonition: "You'll never be able to make a living writing poems." The soundness of that advice sets the tone for this no-nonsense book, which "advocates for poems that can be read and understood without professional interpretation." To that end, he offers plenty of examples from contemporary poets like Jane Hirschfield and B.H. Fairchild (as well as from his own work), explaining uses of rhyme, meter, imagery and other fundamentals without resorting to overly technical language. He stresses the use of judicious detail (which has its source in close observation), and shows, with subtlety, how and when one might shift from metaphor to simile, or vice versa. The last of 12 chapters stresses time as the greatest help in editing: "leave your poem alone until it looks as if someone else might have written it." Perhaps the most important feature of the book is Kooser's voice, which comes through clearly and evenly, with little patience for cant, but a clear desire to advise those starting down a largely thankless path. "The truth is," he writes, "nobody's waiting for you to press your poetry into their hands." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Booklist The work of Kooser, America's new poet laureate, will be receiving more attention now, attention that is amply deserved. As this collection of essays shows, he is a generous presence in the poetic world, one who feels that poets' "job description" (which he discusses in the book's first essay) is not to make money or even fame, but to "serve the poems we write." While encouraging poets to think of their audience as they write, and to revise toward intelligibility, he does not prescribe who that audience will be. His own work tends toward the rural and populist, but he does not disdain those whose audience will be urban and urbane. Rather, he urges poets to focus on the work of poetry rather than on the idea of being a poet. His advice, useful to poets at any level of achievement, includes both broad and specific ideas on revising, and enlightening discussion of matters ranging from the often-underestimated power of simile to employing narrative effectively. Patricia Monaghan Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "Ted Kooser could be mistaken for an average guy except for one thing: He writes poetry. That activity sets him apart from most of his neighbors, since they, like most Americans, have very little time for the stuff. A resident of Nebraska and the first U.S. poet laureate from the Great Plains, Mr. Kooser takes a broadly inclusive approach to promoting poetry; even so, he harbors no illusions about its becoming the national pastime anytime soon. Mr. Kooser captures this outsider-status neatly in The Poetry Home Repair Manual , his guide to aspiring poets and aspiring readers of verse. . . . [P]oetry is a tough sell these days. . . . But that only makes a smart and readable poetry guide all the more welcome, and needed."—David Yezzi, The Wall Street Journal (David Yezzi The Wall Street Journal )"With The Poetry Home Repair Manual, he turns to teaching us what poetry is about, Kooser-style. Much of it appeals. His attitude that 'poetry is communication' is refreshing in an era when so many poets seem to be babbling to themselves, giving us pages ripped out of their narcissistic diaries. . . . As might be expected, Kooser's advice is practical, down-home. . . . Kooser is a fine free-verser, and the biases of his book show it."—Cynthia Haven, San Francisco Chronicle (Cynthia Haven San Francisco Chronicle )"When Nebraska's Ted Kooser was named poet laureate for the Library of Congress last fall, certain quarters of the literary establishment responded with a resounding, Huh? Poets on both coasts scratched their heads, admitting they had never heard of Kooser. It is to be hoped they now have. With Kooser, the middle of the country and Nebraska have triumphed over the self-concerned coasts. Many of his poems involve closely observed Midwestern scenes, their artistry a way of surviving and even enjoying the world. Though Kooser eschews the egotism of many contemporary poets, he is as distinctive a voice as any now at work, a master of metaphor and the short poem. . . . Kooser's book is quietly witty and iconoclastic, with valuable advice. . . . He presents a whole stance toward writing in the context of living one's life. The Poetry Home Repair Manual is brief, lucid, and often remarkably wise."—David Mason, The Weekly Standard (David Mason The Weekly Standard )"Comings and goings, what is there and what isn't, and the possibilities drawn from personal exploration shape the landscapes in Kooser's poetry. This is not an extended, complex, or experimental kind of writing, but a poetry that rings true, allowing the human sound of being to exist on the page. Its brevity is a launching pad for a simplicity that contains mortal lessons whose language changes the reader. This sense of transformation could be the theme of The Poetry Home Repair Manual . It is not a how-to book or a grand manifesto about poetic tradition. This lively and trim book is Kooser's gift to readers and writers of poetry. . . . The value of this book lies in the way Kooser encourages writers to be real about their expectations, their work, and the fact that the world is not waiting for their poems. . . . Kooser is a poet whose triumphs and tragedies become our own, not to shed their weight upon us but to allow us to revel in the process by which the imagination and the mysteries of poetry make our humanity everyone's horizon."— Bloomsbury Review ( Bloomsbury Review )"The work of Kooser, America's new poet laureate, will be receiving more attention now, attention that is amply deserved"— Booklist ( Booklist )"Get your hands on this book. Ask your librarian for it—or better yet buy it, along with a highlighter. You're going to need the latter because this book is brimming with good counsel."—John Eberhart, Kansas City Star (John Eberhart Kansas City Star ) Ted Kooser, former Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress (2004-2006), is a visiting professor in the English department of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a retired insurance executive. He is the author of ten collections of poetry, most recently the Pulitzer Prize-winning Delights & Shadows . His prose book, Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps , won numerous awards, including the Barnes and Noble Discover Award for nonfiction finalist, and is available in a Bison Books edition. Read more