Beth Houston

Extreme Formal Poems: Contemporary Poets Beth Houston

Extreme Formal Poems showcases over 150 expertly crafted poems by nearly forty of the best poets writing today, many of them multi-award winners.

Reading a good formal poem-like any in this collection-can seem like running into an old friend. The poem's form reminds us of the centuries of great poetry we read back in the day in high school and college, and the content is as fresh and lively as a catch-up conversation full of unexpected stories and details.

In tune with the times and accessible to the average reader, these extreme formal poems are anything but stuffy. But there's plenty of technique for experts to appreciate. An impressive variety of contemporary subjects, themes, voices, tones, and styles infuse traditional forms like the sonnet and villanelle, pantoum and terza rima, ballade and ballade, rondeau and rondeau redoublé, ode, aubade, and ekphrastic poems, as well as strictly structured nonce forms created by the poets. There's something here for every reader of poetry to enjoy.