Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens: On Reading and Writing Poetry Forensically

by Paisley Rekdal

An illuminating exploration of how to read and understand poetry, and how reading critically can teach us to write.

What makes reading a poem unlike reading anything else? While there are as many ways to read a poem as there are types of poetry, every poem demands a conscious attention to language. Reading poems forensically helps us bring that attention to our own writing.

In Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens, acclaimed poet and teacher Paisley Rekdal demonstrates how to observe the building blocks of a poem—including its diction, form, imagery, and rhythm—and construct an interpretation of its meaning. Through close analyses of contemporary and classic poems as well as creative exercises and specific, skill-based questions, this book shows how a poem takes shape and accrues meaning through the intersection of all its lyric elements. Lucid and generous, Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens reveals how to read and write critically, and how to appreciate—and achieve—the exhilarating craft of poetry.

Genres: Poetry, Writing, Nonfiction, Teaching

384 pages, Paperback

Published October 22, 2024

About the author

Rekdal grew up in Seattle, Washington, the daughter of a Chinese American mother and a Norwegian father. She earned a BA from the University of Washington, an MA from the University of Toronto Centre for Medieval Studies, and an MFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is the author of the poetry collections A Crash of Rhinos (2000), Six Girls Without Pants (2002), and The Invention of the Kaleidoscope (2007) as well as the book of essays The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee: Observations on Not Fitting In (2000).

In reviewing The Invention of the Kaleidoscope for Barn Owl Review, Jay Robinson observed that it’s “the razor’s edge that always accompanies eros that makes the poems of Paisley Rekdal fresh, intense and ultimately irresistible.” Rekdal’s work grapples with issues of race, sexuality, myth, and identity while often referencing contemporary culture.

Rekdal has been honored with a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, a Village Voice Writers on the Verge Award, and a Fulbright Fellowship to South Korea. Her work has been included in numerous anthologies, including Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (2006) and the 2010 Pushcart Prize Anthology.

Rekdal teaches at the University of Utah.

Reviews

[Michael Mcdonough · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just pushed a button on Goodreads that said “I’ve finished this book.” This is not strictly true. I’ve read all the words on the pages of this book, but I haven’t finished the experiments. Each chapter ends with a whole list of poems to look up and read, with specific questions to keep in mind as you read. This is a workbook, a textbook for a class, and I know that I will keep opening it, and keep practicing the ways of reading illustrated here, and turning to it as a reference. I am not finished with this book.

[Zack Medlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was Paisley's student during my Ph.D. studies and also had the opportunity to observe her teach a undergraduates (I saw her teach one of the lessons from this book!)—I know first-hand that she is an amazing teacher. So when I cracked open this book, I knew within a chapter or two that Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens was going to be the new required text for my poetry workshop students. It's the best, most comprehensive guides for beginning to advanced poets I've found, and I'm thrilled that my students now get to learn from her. I'm excited to be still learning from her, too.

[AE Narvaza · Rating 5 out of 5]

For someone who's writing poetry as a way of life, Real Toads, Imaginary Gardens is a generous and intelligent companion. It does not prescribe what one should write or dictate the rules of poetic construction. Rather, it opens a space for discovery—showing, with clarity and care, how poems move: how they lure the reader into emotional or intellectual terrain, how they stagger in rhythm or meaning, and how they ultimately resonate long after the final line is read. Rekdal offers not a manual, but a map—one that traces the choices poets make with form, syntax, image, and sound, and how these choices enact motion, tension, and release within a poem.

This is not a book of formulas; it is something far more vital. It invites the reader to inhabit the architecture of poetry—to walk its corridors, listen to its silences, observe how the structure holds meaning. Through forensic attention to poetic gesture, Rekdal trains the poet’s eye not only to read more deeply but also to become more deliberate in craft. Insight, in this sense, is not delivered—it is cultivated. And in watching how other poems work, the poet-reader becomes more attuned to their own instincts, more equipped to shape language into something both precise and expansive.

[Jack Malik · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best poetry criticism book I’ve read so far. However, the ending is a bit underwhelming. The most exciting part (for a poet) are the first and second third of the book. Chapter Nine and Ten was a bit of a drag personally, and the Coda felt rushed, or out of stamina.

Nonetheless, this is a great primer for poets and readers alike; one of those rare books that can “assist” you to become a better writer and reader.

Also, here’s my very own breakdown of each chapter, one I like to call Rekdal’s Ten A’s:

Chapter One is basically about Attention.
Chapter Two is about the poet’s Ability.
Chapter Three talks about the Audience.
Chapter Four explores on Anticipation.
Chapter Five looks into Attention’s Measurement.
Chapter Six is about Assembling Patterns.
Chapter Seven deals with the poem’s Action.
Chapter Eight is about Assessing Patterns.
Chapter Nine talks about a poem’s Activity.
Chapter Ten is about Absorption.

And Coda is basically (using) All of the Tools given by Rekdal.

I’d rate this 4.8 stars; it would have gotten a solid 5 if it weren’t for the very draggy last three chapters. That said, I still believe it’s a must-read book for all poets.

[Jess · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was fantastic - as a student who hasn't had the opportunity to take as many poetry and craft classes as I'd love to, this book delved into craft and poetry in a way that goes beyond analyses of poems or what to do/what "not" to do. I often find myself losing interest in books that jumps into going through what may be "better" poetry than others or feel frustrated when I don't "understand" a poem the way it should be. This book is really well-written/constructed: I'm learning through the incorporation of these various examples, more "technical" craft elements, and experimental exercises. This is a book I'll be going back to again and again, and the experiments are fascinating and innovative.

[Amanda Stoeckmann]

I read the introduction and chapter one, and that was more than enough for me.

“If we can all agree on the exact meaning of a poem, doesn’t that suggest the poem itself may be too narrow, even lifeless?”

No, that doesn’t, and that mindset encourages people to write nonsense which they think must be brilliant since it produces so many different “meanings.” Meaning is created by the creator, not the observer.

[Bethany Jarmul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best poetry craft books I’ve ever read! And I’ve read a lot of them. This book focuses on how to read poetry well, on understanding all the various elements that work together inside a poem.

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes this delved a bit erudite for me and I found it tedious, and occasionally I really felt like the author was reading WAY into poems, but broadly speaking I found this quite helpful, interesting, and insightful.

[Karen Carlson]

ok, sure, I'll try another book about how to read poetry, just so I can say I really, really tried.

[mia !! · Rating 4 out of 5]

introduced me to my new fave sylvia plath poem :p