On The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics:
“Your wonderful The Book of Forms…[has] been my personal
poetry Bible for more than thirty-five years….warm regards to you, and thank
you for decades of joy, garnered as I tried my hand at working in the various
forms in my beloved, dog-eared copy of The Book of Forms!” Leigh Harrison "The Book of Forms has brought
immeasurable pleasure to me (and my children who also use it) over the
years. Introduced to it by a local poet and an old friend here in
Syracuse, Dugan Gilman, it has given me the structure over the years to write
much more pleasing and, I think, effective poetry. Once a proponent of
free verse, it was not until Dugan convinced me that I needed discipline
and structure and gifted me with a tattered copy of [the] book. Now on my
third copy, and having bought several more as gifts, I still find regular
pleasure in using it. In fact, I am currently writing a book of poems for my
daughter who turns forty in February. It will contain many different poems in
many varied forms (hell, I may even include a free verse here and there). "An attendant pleasure
was the respect the book gave me for the poets of the ages. I found myself
appreciating and even memorizing many of my favorites." "Yours quite sincerely," Paul Harvey “One would go far in the study of poetry before finding another
magnum opus such as the output of Lewis Turco in this specific field, his
perspicacity majoring in that essential feature of mankind’s repertoire of
talents. This is summed up in a single sentence in his work, The Book Of Forms (page 4), in the
paragraph headed ‘The Levels of Poetry.’ Thus: ‘Since poetry is the product of
the poet who is interested in the vehicle itself, in language as the medium of
expression, then poetry is ‘the art of language.’ It is here that emphasis must
be given to the need for the greatest care that the art be not jeopardized in
any way, but protected by all who would aspire to practise it; and we must not
be condemnatory, but rather an encouragement to fellow poets that they
persevere in an activity that is a thing of joy and immense satisfaction.” Matthew J. Browning “Went
to college, the only one that didn’t make me write an essay. Majored in Viz
Art, but ran out of $$ for paint. Switched to Poetry. Lewis Turco (Mr. Book
of Forms)
taught there, taught well there, made us write in every traditional form, learn
the names and nuances of each. When you finish that, you get a literal ‘poetic
license,’ a certificate and permission to never have to touch such a form
again. He also had us buy Messerli’s Language Poetries: An Anthology—that stuff was formal
too! I left there a little early, moved back to West Virginia. Finished up
undergrad, made more music, wrote poems. Went to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in
‘98. My first book, Radio, Radio, won the Walt Whitman Award. This was 2000. Y2K
luck.” Ben Doyle (aka “Ben Doller”). “As
it turned out, all those years of reading, writing, revising, performing, and
every now and then publishing turned out to be an outstanding apprenticeship
for songwriting. Quite by accident, but completely because of my Lew-based
grounding in the nuts and bolts of rhythm and rhyme, I found myself on stage
with a band. I have NO musical training, but I have a good set of pipes and I
can write some good lyrics, with the melody completely formed in my head. I’d
sing them to my band mates over and over until they figured out the chords.
These were younger folks who were just amazed that I could come in with new
songs without knowing the difference between a G clef and a paperclip. I’m drop
dead serious, however, when I say that the formal poetry training I got at Camp
Turco was what made that possible. Every wannabe rock star or folk hero ought
to start off with the Intro to Poetry syllabus. What was it, 22 forms? (And you
only had to do 21.)” Gordon
Ferguson “My poetry has become a synthesis
between two schools: formal and free verse. As an undergraduate, I was trained
as a formalist poet under the tutelage of Lewis Turco. I enjoyed the challenges
of writing in verse and was awarded with my first published poem. Gaining
confidence and momentum with other publications, I enrolled in an MFA program
for poetry and was shell-shocked by the immense popularity of free verse. Out
of desperation and the instruction of Lou Asekoff and Allen Ginsberg, I adopted
the writing style of my peers and educators, all the while retaining my
formalist training. The result has been a unique blending of the two
philosophies, one that will evolve as I continue to write and publish poetry.” James
Reitter “I remember students coming to me and complaining about all the
forms and exercises you assigned them. I don't know how many times I had to
give them my musician analogy. That without knowing theory and structure and
progression and tonal relationships there's no way you can improvise that will
mean anything to anyone. That any blues or jazz musician, from Zappa to
Clapton, would tell them that. I'd tell them there's nothing lazy and nothing
unearned about either music or poetry. Sometimes they'd listen. What you did,
you did for thousands of kids.” Max
Zimmer
