Dobyns, Stephen. BEST WORDS BEST ORDER: Essays on Poetry. c1996, 2003. Palgrave Macmillan, New York.
This is a great collection of essays about both the craft of poetry and some of the greatest poets. The writing is lucid and engaging.
Hirschfield, Jane. NINE GATES: Entering the Mind of Poetry. c1997. HarperCollins Publishers, New York.
Jane Hirschfield was a wonderful poet and these essays prove that she was an excellent essayist. If you can only get one book about writing poems, get this one! Hirschfield brings her fine concentration to the subject of writing poems and it is, to quote her, "...penetrating, unified, focused, yet also permeable and open."
Hirsch, Edward. HOW TO READ A POEM: and Fall in Love with Poetry. c1999. Harcourt, San Diego, CA.
This is a passionate book that is good for both readers and writers of poems. Highly recommended.
