How to Write a Form Poem—National Poetry Month Inspiration!

Looking for a wonderful book to inspire you this National Poetry Month?

Tania Runyan’s How to Write a Form Poem: A Guided Tour of 10 Fabulous Forms is engaging, often amusing, and always helpful.

In the pages of How to Write a Form Poem, you’ll find:

• accessible explanations for how to write in 10 fabulous forms: villanelles, sestinas, sonnets, rondeaux, odes, found poems, haiku, acrostics (the real kind), pantoums, and ghazals—plus many variations like the triolet, rondelet, haibun, and more

• Runyan’s own travel stories that help give depth to your understanding of the form being discussed (for instance, an unlikely Nevada desert carnival for the villanelle!)

• Runyan’s own journey with each form, along with a sample poem that shows how she approached the writing and how you can approach it, too

• plenty of sample poems from established and emerging poets from all walks of life and geographies

• helpful exercises to get you started (starting is often the hardest part!)

• inspiring prompts to keep you going

• PLUS: next-level suggestions for poets who are ready to “go the extra mile”

 

This promises to be a fun and informative journey.”

—Sandra Heska King, reader

 

Your Invitation

Once you begin writing, we invite you to drop some of your “tries” into the comment box below. We want to celebrate with you throughout your writing journey!

We’d also love to hear about your experiences in approaching the forms in How to Write a Form Poem. Challenges, discoveries, surprises. Your stories encourage others (and us!).

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Love This, From Celebrity Misha Collins

(We’re so pleased with this heartfelt book congratulations from Misha Collins, who plays an angel in the TV show Supernatural!)

Meet the Rest of the “How To” Trio

How to Read a Poem: Based on the Billy Collins Poem “Introduction to Poetry”

How to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem “Introduction to Poetry”)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Excellent teaching tool. Anthology included.

“I teach Introduction to Literature, among other courses, and this will be main textbook for the poetry unit from now on.”

—Tom Hunley, Professor

How to Write a Poem: Based on the Billy Collins Poem “Introduction to Poetry”

How to Write a Poem uses images like the buzz, the switch, the wave—from the Billy Collins poem “Introduction to Poetry”—to guide writers into new ways of writing poems. Excellent teaching tool. Anthology and prompts included.

“How To Write A Poem is a classroom must-have. Through a selection of evocative poetry and a series of accessible exercises, Runyan shows readers how to gather ideas, choose words, strengthen imagery and sound, and she models each of these skills as she writes alongside her readers. This is compassionate, beautiful writing that invites us into the world of poems.”

—Callie Feyen, Teacher