First Light: A Jump-Start for the Novice Poet

If you've ever wanted to step into the ecstasy of a poet laureate or to deliver a riveting poetry reading and then head out to choose the cover for your latest book, you have come home. Poets have created some odd legacies. Edgar Allan Poe wrote with "Catarina," his cat, on his shoulder, and Dame Edith Sitwell prepped by lying in an open coffin to get her own creative juices flowing; you will find this text more mainstream. It delineates a coherent method as it inculcates the skill-building savvy required to avoid years of grueling apprenticeship with little risk of coffin or cat allergies.

First Light offers a survey of the poetic landscape as well as a compass: a faith in your own compass. And while it won't create either instant poetry or coffee, it does provide a fast track: an antidote for years of flailing. It also acts as a catapult or jump-start. Your time and expertise will now be focused, as you part company with rank beginners.

To achieve competency in any field you need an awareness of its intellectual and emotional geography to assure your own resilience. If that awareness is combined with instruction in appropriate skills, and an easy-to-follow method is then implemented, Voila! Success. Sounds simple. While it's easy to envision, it's deceptively difficult to realize or to measure. Lao Tzu warned, if you do not change direction you may end up where you are going. This guide assists with vital detours or any redirect.