Proofs & Theories: Essays on Poetry, by Louise Gluck
Like Louise Gluck's poetry, her prose in these essays on poetry are concise, insightful, crisp and deeply intelligent. Each one offered me something useful as a poet, teacher, and/or person. There's the spark of recognition in what she has to say about her own process as a writer and in her interpretations and close readings of particular poems and poets. She can be brave, too, in making cases for the usually (or temporarily) spurned, like impoverishment/passivity and sincerity (versus truth).
There's nothing like reading a great book/collection on craft and feeling re-energized and compelled to write. This book did that for me.
