Finger Exercises for Poets

From the introduction to Finger Exercises for Poets

"I often think about how my mother instilled this kind of discipline in me at an early age: art as practice at mastery, worthy of our time and focus. My instrument is the immensity of language, the techniques and effects of crafting images, shaping sound and rhythm, creating new combinations with the single notes of words, each colliding or coming together, meshing or crashing, standing firm or tumbling. There are eighty-eight keys on a piano, six hundred thousand words in the English language. The patterns, sequences and permutations of both are endless. For me, language is another kind of music. I practice poetry. This book invites you to practice along with me."