Poet Sandy Lyne has led poetry writing workshops across the country for the last twenty years. His poems have been published in numerous journals, including the American Poetry Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Poetry East, Louisiana Literature and Louisiana Review. He lives outside Lafayette, Louisiana.

Acknowledgments
Preface

Part I:In Preparation

Chapter 1:The Golden String
Chapter 2:Beginning Your Journey--The Writer's Studio
Chapter 3:Artists in Light and Sound
Chapter 4:Pick-Up Sticks, or The Trick of Being You
Chapter 5:Our Materials--Words

Part II: The Methods

Chapter 6:Poem-Sketching
Chapter 7:Giving the Poem a Form
Chapter 8:Additional Exercises with Poem-Sketching
Chapter 9:"Matching" Poems
Chapter 10:Alternative Thinking
Chapter 11:Shake It Up
Chapter 12:The Poem as a Self-Portrait
Chapter 13:The Power of Beliefs
Chapter 14:Voice--Being Yourself on Paper
Chapter 15:Creating Your Own Word Groups
Chapter 16:Life Is the Teacher--Writing Poems from Daily
Experience
Chapter 17:Inner and Outer Observation
Chapter 18:Adding Sound
Chapter 19:Reading Other Poets
Chapter 20:Circles of Awareness

Part III:Transformations

Chapter 21:Writing Poetry--The Spiritual Journey
Chapter 22:The Community of Poets

Appendixes

Appendix A:Suggested Reading
Appendix B:Poem-Sketching
Appendix C:Word Groups
About the Author