The Poet's Cookbook: Details for over 50 forms, types of meter, structure, rhyme and over 100 writing exercises.

by Dan Gilbert

First off, this isn’t a book that is about how you should write poetry, it is a (hopefully) light-hearted and humorous approach which explores how you can write poetry. I’m not into rules. I like experimenting and exploring ideas and the pursuit of creativity. However, I do also think that we can learn from some of the rules, conventions and mechanics of different types of poetry no matter how much we think we know. Whether you are new to writing or whether you are a more experienced hand, I hope that there is something for everyone in this book, that it will be challenging and will help you to grow in your craft.

Genres: Poetry, Writing, Nonfiction, Literature

171 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 25, 2015

Reviews

[Nikita Gill]

Real rating 2.5. It had some useful bits.

[Qasim Zafar]

The reason I give this five stars isn't because it is the best damn book you can find on poetry, but because it cuts straight to the chase. It gives a good introduction to various forms of poetry from around the world, and then gives you the exercises which you can adapt to whatever style you like. It was good, for me, for sparking creativity.

[Cidney]

Well I would do as the author says, ignore the cheesy lamb and aubergine mush, if you want that mush then this isn't the book for you. Says he. This book isn't exactly a book about poetry and how to write it, more how to think it, I think is what he means. This isn't my version of the book, it's the black covered kindle book published in 2015. I prefer my cover.

The book takes you into sections divided into meters and measures, rhythm and rhyme, different types of poetry such as anacreontea, asefru, cinquain, clerihew etc. (No, me neither, but then that's probably why I'll never make a poet. I have tried....). So if you are into all the technical terms in how to write a poem then this book is definitely the one for you! If you're not, then just look for the humour and do it, well up to a point, best to avoid humour in death, unless you are a disciple of Terry Pratchett.

Mr Gilbert is saying that "if you have ever cooked a meal from a cookbook you will know that you don't have to follow the recipe exactly to reach a delicious result". Just try to write a few lines first and then follow through. I think. Anyway I'm already giving it a go. Maybe I should just stick to the cookbooks I read. Or stick to the limericks? Hmm.....

[Graeme]

Happy and helpful

There was a time when I tried writing poems with form. Then I drifted away from the idea because it's hard, man. Counting syllables and figuring out meter is tough and time consuming. But I think it often makes for better poetry - for me as a writer, anyway. So, I thought I'd check this book out.

I thought it's light approach made what could have been terrifically pretentious fun and fascinating. I want to try the forms discussed. And there are a lot - not just from a western tradition too.

Is it really a cookbook though? Not exactly. It's an explanation of poetic forms all listed alphabetically. Then, there's a series of probes or exercises to spur your writing. Would you call this a cookbook? Maybe not so, but it doesn't matter. The title piques interest, and while you don't quite get recipe - you get ingredients rather than ingredients and method - it doesn't matter. That's all you need. Plus you don't feel like an idiot for looking for it.

Thoroughly recommend this title.

[Mel]

While I liked this book, I'm glad I didn't pay more than 99 cents for it. It is decent refernece book that you can quickly open and get a basic understanding of a poem format. It's a good book for those who are trying to explore new formats and styles. It is simple and user friendly. That being said, it might be too simple. You can get the same information for free on the internet. He even references Wikipedia at one point. You can read Wikipedia for free. While there are some interesting writing prompts in the back, I've seen variations of the same prompts online. Free.

This is a nice little pocket guide, though. And it's nice not to have to dig through poorly formatted webpages. This a simple poetic cookbook. I was pretty disappointed with simplized explanations of the some of the forms I know well. It doesn't mean it's bad; it just means it's a place to start learning, not a place to do all your learning.

[Jillian]

I really like the concept of a humorous reference book of poetic forms and prompts. It provided a helpful review of familiar forms and poems plus some intriguing unfamiliar ones, plus a few exercises I might use. But throughout this book, the author kept coming off as annoyingly lazy: There are typos. He keeps saying his example poems were dashed off quickly (which is either real laziness or faked laziness to defend bad poetry). There's no references section. And it's clear he doesn't have enough quality ideas for 100 unique writing exercises and should have stopped around 30. It's disappointing that he had a great idea and a reasonably entertaining start, but didn't follow through to do it well.

[Ellen-Arwen Tristram]

Middling

I was looking for some sort of bank of inspirational ideas/games that would be helpful for getting me into writing poetry regularly. This was okay, I suppose, but not particularly different. The first half consists of explaining various forms of poetry - some were new to me which was nice! However, a number of the more complicated forms (like the sestina, vilanelle etc) were pretty poorly explained, to the point that i wouldn't have understood them if i wasn't already familiar.

The prompts were fairly mediocre, nothing particular stuck out of made me feel inspired... For example, there's a prompt to sir a poem in second person, and one to write a poem about the future. Not exactly ground breaking ideas...

[Dean Cowan]

The Poet's Cookbook.

Gilbert provides the student and would be poet with the fun opportunity to explore poetic forms. Some are well known and others obscure but this handy and amusingly written Guide makes the subject accessible. The authors still is light and often funny , however my few criticisms include not enough examples and he is too dismissive of free verse.

[Sarah]

I cannot rave about this book enough! I have spent years searching for a book exactly like this. It holds everything I need to know about the structure of different poems and fills many gaps in my knowledge. I am in no doubt my poetry is going to come on leaps and bounds with the help of this book. I would highly recommend to other poets.

[Kodmon Csaba]

Expected more

I expected more from this book. There was another review mentioning that you can find this information online. It tasted like a textbook without the practical applications. Yes there are funny remarks but that did not dissolve my disappointment.

[stephanie warrillow]

I really enjoyed this

I really enjoyed this as it gave me lots of ideas and new things to try and I am thinking now about using in my very first workshop I loved every moment of reading this book

[5WW_Kindles]

Aside from the typos...

Interesting book for someone who is going to try a hand at poetry. Some good things to consider while you try to find a style.

Also, unfortunately, some of the exercises in the last quarter of the book repeat.

Two stars off for typos and repeats.

[m long]

Good


I thought it was a good. Reference. Book something to fall back on when you get stuck . I needed to know certain styles

[H A Vitatoe]

Educational

This is educational and explains how to write different types of poetry with examples . I would recommend this book.

[Helena Handbasket]

A wonderful resource for helping my son understand and appreciate poetry.

[Bo]

Not impressed.

[Maryann Gestwicki]

Excellent book for any writer to have a fresh new take on writing different forms of poetry.

[Lyn]

It was a good refresher for me on poetry forms. I will be referring back to it over and over. The explanations are precise and helpful for poets wanting to perfect styles.

[Mark Gale]

If you are into rhyming
there is no denying
this book is for you.