How a Poem Moves: A Field Guide for Readers of Poetry - Paperback

by Adam Sol (Author)

A collection of playfully elucidating essays to help reluctant poetry readers become well-versed in verse

Developed from Adam Sol's popular blog, How a Poem Moves is a collection of 35 short essays that walks readers through an array of contemporary poems. Sol is a dynamic teacher, and in these essays, he has captured the humor and engaging intelligence for which he is known in the classroom. With a breezy style, Sol delivers essays that are perfect for a quick read or to be grouped together as a curriculum.

Though How a Poem Moves is not a textbook, it demonstrates poetry's range and pleasures through encounters with individual poems that span traditions, techniques, and ambitions. This illuminating book is for readers who are afraid they "don't get" poetry but who believe that, with a welcoming guide, they might conquer their fear and cultivate a new appreciation.

Back Jacket

"How a Poem Moves is the perfect antidote to the condition commonly known as Fear of Poetry. And Adam Sol is the perfect companion on this tour of the sounds, sights, and emotional delights of poetry. As someone who's spent most of her life reading and writing poems, I'm thrilled by Sol's ability to describe what he loves in a way that teaches me to see it too." --Tracy K. Smith, U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Life on Mars

"Adam Sol approaches poetry with a unique sensitivity; one that illustrates, with exceptional clarity and insight, just how a poem moves." -- Scott Griffin, founder of the Griffin Poetry Prize

"With an eye to poets of diverse backgrounds and aesthetic modes, and featuring impromptu asides on rhythm and meter, How a Poem Moves is just as at home in the university classroom as the doctor's waiting room. Sol is a thoughtful and affable guide to ignite -- or reignite -- a love of poetry." -- Cassidy McFadzean, award-winning author of Hacker Packer

"There is in our wounded world a great need for the balm and challenge poetry can provide. These beautiful, rich, and often surprising meditations get the reader excited about the gift that poems contain... This is a book I will pass out like religious tracts to my friends. I am grateful for it." -- Shelagh Rogers, host and producer at The Next Chapter, CBC Radio One

Developed from Adam Sol's popular blog, How a Poem Moves walks readers through an array of contemporary poems. Always compassionate and engaging, Sol delivers a collection of thirty-five short essays that are perfect for a quick read or grouped together as a curriculum, demonstrating poetry's range and pleasures through encounters with individual poems that span traditions, techniques, and ambitions. This illuminating book is for readers who are afraid they "don't get" poetry but who believe that, with a welcoming guide, they might conquer their fear and cultivate an appreciation for the form.

Author Biography

Adam Sol is an award-winning poet, writer, and teacher. He has published four collections of poetry, including Crowd of Sounds, which won Ontario's Trillium Book Award. He lives in Toronto, Ontario, with his wife, Rabbi Yael Splansky, and their three sons.