Yesterday afternoon the publisher and I came to an amicable agreement about the table of contents for The Conversation: Learning to Be a Poet. Naturally I am overwhelmed by the scope of this burgeoning project, but I'm also very pleased with it and grateful to Mike for prodding me into making it so comprehensive. Here's the bare-bones outline as it stands (though I have not begun applying for reprint permission so things may change:

Part 1: Watching a Poet Make a Poem

This will include in-depth discussions of works by Shakespeare, Dickinson, Shelley, Hopkins, Amy Lowell, Robert Hayden, Joe Bolton, and John Donne. Each chapter will also feature five additional poems for study, from a broad range of time periods and in widely varying styles.

Part 2: Writing about a Poet and a Poem

This will focus on long poems by Blake, Milton, Coleridge, and Brigit Kelly.

Part 3: Meeting a Poem in Its Context

This will feature a chapbook-length selection of poems by a single poet followed by an interview with her. I'm not going to mention any names because I haven't asked her for permission yet.

Part 4: Talking about Poetry

This will reprint all of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale, followed by transcriptions from the online readers' group I hosted on this blog several years. If you are one of those readers, I will be contacting you shortly for permission to use your comments.