Here are some interesting sites and information/advice I would like to share with you.  I will expand this list and
                    I welcome suggestions from clients and others.

                    My client Elwin U. sent me a link to a Web site devoted to something called "HipBone Games."  He referred me
                    to the page "The Glass Bead Game," which discusses a theoretical game that is central to Hermann Hesse's novel
                    Magister Ludi.  That page links to a page "Explaining the Glass Bead Game," where the author of the site, Charles
                    Cameron, offers comments that have much in common with advice I have been conveying to amateur poets since I
                    started my poetry criticism service in 1982.  The passage I'm referring to appears below.  Those of you who want
                    to know more about the Glass Bead Game and HipBone Games can explore the site further at HipBone Games.
                                                                        

                              "As a poet, I have some very definite opinions about the arts, and believe for instance that all the arts
                              depend on a marriage of passion with tight structure...  I believe you can write a clever poem without heart,
                              and it will be dry and lifeless, or a passionate poem without skill, and it will mean next to nothing to anyone
                              except the person you wrote it for--but that when you combine passion and skill, you get a poem that can
                              transmit your passion to a far wider audience...  which is why the great love poems from Shakespeare to
                              ee cummings are still feverishly quoted by teenage lovers...

                              "I believe, in other words, that this business of passion and formal restraint is one of those cross-disciplinary
                              truths like the inverse square law. As I put it recently:

                                        "Great splash alone is all wet.  Tight focus alone is a trickle.  But great splash passing through tight
                                        focus can send water arcing through the air to great heights, to land at a great distance...

                              "Let's take this a little further.

                              "Music is the marriage of passion with tight structure in the field of sound, poetry the marriage of passion with
                              tight structure in the field of words, etc. And if I'm right about this, the GBG [Glass Bead Game] is the marriage
                              of passion with tight structure in the field of ideas--specifically including verbal, pictorial, and musical ideas."
                                                                        

                    While reading that passage by Cameron, I realized that in nearly every critique I have ever written, I have emphasized
                    the concept of tight structure (or "well-crafted form," as I'm more likely to express it), but I have rarely, if ever, felt
                    the need to require that a poet bring more passion to his or her work.  I can't recall having had a client whose poetry
                    exhibited a deficiency of passion.  For most amateur poets, their deepest emotions and most ardent beliefs are far more
                    important than the scansion of a line or the appropriateness of a rhyme, and their poetry inevitably suffers from their
                    misplaced concerns.  The poets who are the least amateurish are those who either have an inborn sense of (or passion
                    for) formal structure, or who somehow develop or learn such a sense or passion.  All of this should seem obvious, but it
                    rarely is obvious to an amateur poet.  Like the hypothetical recipient of Richard Wilbur's "Advice to a Prophet," I've
                    sometimes feared that I would become "mad-eyed from stating the obvious."  And to paraphrase the fellow on the
                    porch in It's a Wonderful Life, I've often felt that passion is wasted on the wrong people.  America needs ten million
                    fewer people who are passionate about scattering emotion-laden words on paper, and ten million more people who are
                    passionate about demanding a national solar energy program.
                                                                        

                    Mathom Bookshop, owned and operated by poet Lewis Turco, stocks an impressive array of books--including
                    many first editions and autographed copies--in the fields of poetry, fiction, criticism, history, Americana, Maine,
                    antiquarian & rare, philosophy & religion, reference, agriculture & nature, exploration & travel, social sciences,
                    art, music, and science & technology.

                    Poetics & Ruminations appears to be the best link to access Lew online.  The Web address he used for years,
                    www.mathombookshop.com, is apparently no longer available.

                    Pet Portraits by Arran is my younger daughter's venture into self-employment.  She describes her style as "whimsical,"
                    but at least one of her works transcended whimsy.  Thorstein was my wife's and my cat for eighteen of his nineteen years.
                    He developed an inoperable tumor in his belly, and we had to have him put down in April 2004.  He loved catnip--a lot--so
                    Arran painted him in a garden of catnip, and captured something of his soul in the process.  Take a look.

                    Mark Worden is one of the few people I would trust (other than myself, of course) to advise poets about how to improve
                    their writing.  Don't ask him to do that, though.  I don't even want to think about how terribly he would be offended and
                    how badly he might behave.  Fortunately, you (and I) can partake of Mark's wisdom by visiting his Web site.  Topics
                    include: Advice To Young Poets; The Lucidist Manifesto; The Type-A Poet; and The Worden Report.  If you're a poet--
                    or if you're afraid you might be--drink deeply of the prescriptions offered on Mark's pages.  (If symptoms persist, send
                    me a specimen--of your poetry, that is-- with appropriate payment for analysis.)

                    In another (presumably more lucrative) career, Mark Worden has co-written (with Gayle Rosellini) six self-help
                    "recovery" books including Taming Your Turbulent Past, Of Course You're Angry, and Barriers to Intimacy.

                    Caleb Murdock and Rhina P. Espaillat have established a fine poetry anthology site called The Poem Tree.  The site is
                    dedicated to the memory of Judson Jerome and currently includes four of Jud's poems.  Anyone interested in publishing
                    poetry should also click the "Essays" link and then click the link for Judson Jerome's Publishing Poetry.  Caleb has
                    done a superb job of annotating and updating Jud's treatise, which was originally published by Trunk Press in 1981.

                    Poetry Magic, despite its cheesy title, is trying to be a serious "theory and craft resource centre" for poets.  Currently
                    consisting of about forty brief articles on various aspects of poetry, the site seems to be predominantly written by
                    C. John Holcombe.  A note informs us that Holcombe "was for many years the Chairman of one of the UK's longest-
                    running poetry writing groups"--hardly the most impressive qualification one could hope for, but remarkable in its way.
                    I've read a few of the articles and skimmed another dozen or so.  There's a lot of information in the site, organized
                    and expressed rather well, and certainly worth knowing about, if not all worth agreeing with.

                    I would caution readers against adopting the all-embracing and uncritical disposition that seems typical of Chairman
                    Holcombe.  I'll invoke the "fair use" doctrine and give you some examples:

                              "Many (poems)--probably the great majority--are never accepted by reputable magazines and simply
                              have to be aired in poetry groups..."

                    I'd like to tell him, Oh, no, they don't!

                    Holcombe takes a couple of stabs at a definition of poetry.  Here's the first, tentative try:

                              "What is poetry?  A short piece of imaginative writing, of a personal nature and laid out in lines
                              is the usual answer.  Will that do?"

                    It won't do for me, and we're fortunate that it wouldn't do for any of our major poets or virtually all of our good
                    minor poets.  Admitting that "definitions are difficult in the arts," Holcombe takes another whack at it:

                              "Perhaps we could say that poetry was a responsible attempt to understand the world in human terms
                              through literary composition."

                    Well, that does some damage by suggesting that poetry is a thing of the past, that poetry is by definition "responsible,"
                    and that it's possible to understand the world in nonhuman terms.  Also, it makes no distinction between poetry and
                    other forms of literary composition.  I don't think Holcombe thought it through very well.

                    I suspect Holcombe and I would disagree about the percentage of poetry that qualifies as "responsible."  Shall I offer
                    some estimates?  How about fifteen percent of current poetry that gets published in print, and three percent of what
                    gets displayed on the Web?  (I'm being much too kind, of course.)

                    Read the Poetry Magic site with a critical eye.

                                                              

                    Beware of SCAMS!

                    To learn more about scams that prey on poets, read  Would-be poets and scam artists.
                                                              

                    Recommended Reading

                    The above-mentioned Lewis Turco has written brilliantly and boldly on various aspects of the art and the practice
                    of poetry.  He is also a remarkably accomplished poet.  When you visit his Web site, be sure to order at least
                    the following books:  The Shifting Web: New and Selected Poems; The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics;
                    Visions and Revisions of American Poetry; and The Public Poet.  (Add my Selected Poetry and Song Lyrics
                    to the order while you're at it.)

                    If you can find Judson Jerome's The Poet and the Poem in a library or a used book store, I highly recommend
                    that you read it.  (See my home page for a link to the Preface and first three chapters.)  This is the book that
                    can be your best mentor in your life as a poet.  The third edition was issued in 1979 and it is out of print.
                    Amazon.com will search for a used copy.  (Also ask for his Thirty Years of Poetry, 1949 - 1979, also out of
                    print.)  Jerome's The Poet's Handbook is still available in paperback from the publisher, Writer's Digest Books.
                    Barnes and Noble carries Jerome's in-print titles.  On my home page there is a link to a generous selection of
                    Jud's poetry, painstakingly typed, proofread, and formatted by little ol' me.  A labor of love, most certainly.

                    If you are just starting out writing poetry (or just starting to seriously read it, for that matter), try to expose
                    yourself to plenty of mainstream professional-level British and American poetry.  A good, inexpensive
                    starting point is Immortal Poems of the English Language, edited by Oscar Williams.  From there, go on to
                    Mid-Century American Poets, edited by John Ciardi; The New Oxford Book of American Verse, chosen and
                    edited by Richard Ellman; and The New Oxford Book of English Verse, chosen and edited by Helen Gardner.

                    In the last-named volume, I noticed that the first fifty-six lines of Oliver Goldsmith's "The Deserted Village"
                    had been excerpted under the title "Sweet Auburn," and the rest of that long poem--about twelve pages--
                    had been omitted without explanation.  I don't know if the editor originated that "version" or is perpetuating
                    someone else's butchery, but as the editor, Gardner is responsible for presenting it in that form.  When
                    excerpting is deemed necessary in an anthology, it should be made clear what is being done, as in "from
                    'An Essay on Criticism,'" "from 'In Memoriam,' " etc.
                                                              

                    A few parting shots, upon which I might expound at length later:

                    Some people write poetry as if they've spent more time in the greeting card aisle of the supermarket than in the
                    library.  A few writers of mass-market verse--and non-verse--have built very successful careers.  No doubt their
                    effusions fill a need for many people whose hunger for platitudes and certitudes exceeds their appreciation of
                    originality, rationality, and craft.  That says a lot about our society and our educational systems.

                    Don't get too wrapped up in the work of a particular poet.  Diversify your interests.

                    Read a hundred good poems for every one you try to write.

                    Read a hundred metered poems for every one that's in so-called "free verse."

                    Read at least ten poems by deceased poets for each one you read by a living poet--but don't neglect living
                    poets, because many of them deserve your attention.

                   This page Copyright © 2002 by Hayes Walker/Poetry Criticism Service.  All rights reserved.