Mayes writes well-written book with good examples and solid advice. Her goal is to encourage people to read and write poetry and not to be intimidated by it. Mayes talks about rhyme, free verse, choice of subject, and style, she explains how poetry works. She includes hundreds of examples of poetry from different time periods including student samples. Students and teachers benefit from being able to view several of the examples. It helps encourage those who are scared of poetry to become more comfortable with it. With the wide range and time periods that the examples offer, most students should be inspired by more than one. I like the fact that this book explains how poetry works and encourages people to try poetry even though they haven’t