The Practice of Poetry

Hey, if you're a poet and wants some terrific exercises for writing poetry--try The Practice of Poetry, edited by Roni Behn and Chase Twichell. It's great for sparking the imagination, which is why I'm especially encouraging fiction writers who are blocked to try it. It's got my mind all woke up. A friend gave me an article from the LA Times about cowboy poets/farmer poets and I thought that was pretty funny and true. I'm from the Midwest and I can see why farmers would resent the bailout when they lost all their farms in the 80's. No one came to their aide. Here's a sample from Yvonne Hollenbeck
"A 'Bail Out' plan in AgLand is to feed the livestock hay,
and not the type of bail-out plan we hear about today.
When country folds lose money, which happens most of the time
they don't receive a handout...not even one thin dime."

Love it.