Reader Review: Sage Cohen's "Writing The Life Poetic"

This review is provided courtesy of Reading Local contributor Ali.  You can read more of Ali’s thoughts on Writing The Life Poetic, as well further reviews and other book musings on her fabulous blog Worducopia.

I sat down with Sage Cohen’s Writing the Life Poetic, expecting to be inspired to read and write more poetry. Not expecting:

• Tips for fighting off writer’s block, that I’ll use in both my fiction and nonfiction writing
• Inspiration for making my prose flow better
• Motivation to prioritize my writing time
• Ideas for cultivating a writing ritual that I’ve never seen in another writing craft book
• To read an entire chapter aloud to my husband
• To get a little choked up in the process

While Cohen’s aim is to guide readers through different aspects of reading and writing poetry, nearly everything she says can be applied to any type of writing, or, for that matter, any creative endeavor. Just as one doesn’t have to be a gardener in order to enjoy a tour through a friend’s treasured garden, there’s an abundance of beauty here for poet and non-poet alike.

Somehow, by the time we’ve left elementary school, many of us have been socialized to believe that we are not smart enough, deep enough, interesting enough, or imaginative enough to write poetry. This wet blanket snuffs out our creative juices, reinforcing our distrust in our ability to make fire.

Ambrose Redmoon says that courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. I recommend that you choose to make the writing of poetry more important than the fear that you may not have what it takes. (Writing the Life Poetic, p. 77)

Cohen sprinkles her eighty short chapters with snippets of poetry and full poems, both simply for the art of them and in exercises to get the creative juices flowing which are sure to inspire teachers of both adults and children. Readable enough to zip straight through all the way through, and full of gems worthy of going back to again and again.

Cohen will be running a workshop called 7 Habits of Widely Published Poets on August 8th at the Willamette Writers Conference, by the way. She can also be found at www.writingthelifepoetic.com and www.writingthelifepoetic.typepad.com.