The publisher and I are still wrestling over the details of the new book I'm contracted to write for Autumn House Press--and I mean wrestling in the nicest possible way, though worries keep dogging me. Am I the person who ought to be writing this book? Do I even have the stamina? I know that everything will work out, but I'm feeling anxious.

Here's the general structural plan we've hammered out thus far, and I'd appreciate any thoughts you have on the matter.

Part 1, titled something along the lines of "Watching a Poet Make a Poem," will contain eight chapters, each of which discusses a specific poem in terms of a question (i.e., "What's the Most Important Sentence?"), suggests a writing activity, and includes five other poems for further study.

Part 2, titled something along the lines of "Talking with a Poet and a Poem," moves the reader toward ways of creating her own personal reader-response to poetry. It will include two chapters, each of which reprints a large, complex work (something from Blake maybe, something from Milton maybe) and a response essay. The third chapter will reprint yet another largish piece and then offers suggestions for ways in which a reader might approach her own response essay to the piece.

My thought here is that students and teachers of poetry need to do both: they need to write poems and they need to write about poems. What do you think?

P.S. I should add that I've decided to mix old and new poems throughout the book, thanks to your suggestions. I think it makes to sense to demonstrate a continuity of conversation, as you were arguing.