Outside What You Are Told: A Guide for Poets and Poetry Writers

This book is not a manual on how to write
"correct" poetry. It will not teach you to follow the
rules, to please critics, or to mimic the voices that
already saturate the literary world. Instead, Outside
What You Are Told: A Guide for Poets and Poetry
Writers is an invitation-to question, to experiment,
to unlearn. It is a call to listen to the voice that
exists beneath the layers of influence, instruction,
and imitation.

Why This Book Exists
Every poet begins as a reader. We absorb
the rhythms of the poets who came before us, the
structures we are taught in classrooms, the

conventions deemed "proper" or "literary." But
there comes a point when the weight of tradition
stifles rather than inspires. The poems that linger in
the mind long after reading, the lines that cut
straight to the bone-these are not the products of
rigid adherence to form. They emerge from a
willingness to step outside what you have been told
poetry should be.
This book is for the poet who feels the
friction between what they have learned and what
they want to say. It is for the writer who senses that
their most authentic work lies beyond the confines
of conventional wisdom. It is for those who suspect
that poetry is not about following a path but about
discovering-or creating-their own.