My Favorite Book for Teaching Poetry | The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser

If you had to pick one book to help you along in your poetry writing, I'd recommend Ted Kooser's The Poetry Home Repair Manual.

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0:00 Introduction
1:22 An Accessible Starting Point
4:04 A Reader-Centered Approach
6:40 Practical, Useful Advice
8:35 Just a Pleasure

[dannicholas]

So fine. Just taught poetry class..ive no training...but do have yrs!...ordered this book...recommended your channel to the class
Dan, m77, Copperopolis

[AsuraSantosha]

You've suggested this book before - either in a past comment or on your discord, so I ordered it from an online used book store. I started reading it and loved it, but then I had some big life experiences that led me to a major bout of depression and burnout, and I'm just coming back into the world of the living. So I'm gonna take this as a sign to pick it back up again. Thanks, as always, for your inspiring content, Andrew! ❤

[crstph]

“poems written without readers in mind are journal entries written in verse.” this is such a helpful sentiment for me personally to conceptualize when the arts value is in the making or the sharing. thanks!

[tommyservo]

Esoteric bloviating... had to look that one up. Love it.

[Dismythed]

I'll have it in a couple weeks. Thanks for the recommendation. I trust your judgment.

[PixelatedApollo]

Another banger! Thanks for the book recommendation!

[vinzaux]

hi Andrew, I just wanted to say thanks to you, the last couple of weeks I've been watching almost every video on your channel and I'm starting to write so much better things, and it makes me really happy that there's people like you that make this videos for free and for everyone. seriously, thank you so much, I wish you the very best :)

also I'm sorry if there's any bad written words in my comment, english is not my main language

[michaelgriffith]

Yes!!! I think this is the perfect book for poets who have been at it for a few months.

I think of Ted Kooser's tone as that of "Uncle Ted, " because he's such a gentle guide.

Great video, Andrew!

[Benkerosadon]

Andrew, thank you for sharing your love of literature with people.

[jolinevdk]

Defintely adding this one to my reading list!

[PainfullySubjective]

and you keep on doing the good things that YOU're doing, good sir!

[Cvvde]

There’s another guy here on YouTube—a Harvard PhD student in literature, though I won’t name any names—who compiled a list of what he presented as introductory materials to poetry for the beginner. Among others, this list included Cleanth Brooks’s classic textbook Understanding Poetry, and some other text by Helen Vendler.

I commented on his video, and said that it’s rather inaccessible to give a beginner Cleanth Brooks and Helen Vendler, and he actually stood by his selection, but what else what he supposed to do after he made his entire video.

I think you and I are on the same page about how to introduce poetry. Janet Gardner’s “Reading and Writing about Literature” is very useful as well. A little funny in places. Even Thomas C. Foster’s “How to—“ empire is more accessible than the aged New Critics (whom I very much adore, but I would not give to a beginner).

[MatthewTPrice]

I still have no idea what's the difference between a metaphor and a simile other than the words "like" or "as." That seems like a distinction without a difference, but that's what we were taught in school!

[valvihk]

I love writing poetry, I've done this for years. But now, I want to publish, and that demands the audience-considerate poetry which I lack.

[PrinceValium_TheRestlessKnight]

"That tangle of Victorian nonsense" sums up poetry for me.

[ManOfPrayer]

The book is extremely expensive in the UK.

[JamalAhmadMalik]

Kooser's birthday is in two days. You should have waited a few days!