This is a personal workbook that allows a user to create poetry, in rhyme or free verse - personal choice. Readers are given a word, to create a poem about, and ten words that are to be included in the poem. The book includes line space to write the poem into the book.

There are over 200 themes, With ten words to be included in the poem, it is a challenge. In order to review this book, I wrote one poem, using the book's topic: Life and the words: state, spirit, body, destiny, memory, time, sacrifice, purpose, existence, and death. The poem was intense. It can be a challenge to use all ten words in a poem!

I would suggest the book as an excellent choice for adult writers or a creative writing class in college or high school. Given the subject, as well as the ten specific words to use in the poem, the free verse seems to flow quickly. Yet, having to use all ten words could be somewhat limiting, so poets might want to vary their writings and simply use the word list as a suggestion for some of their poetry.

This book/journal is fantastic for getting creativeness to flow. I really love it and will be acquiring a copy because I feel it will really inspire me to write. The editors inspire you by letting you take the prompts and interpret them in your unique voice. They don't even suggest following a format and I found that really impressive as I am not one to follow the pack.
This isn't ideal for a library as patrons would try to write in it, but would make the perfect gift for those that like words and playing around with them.
A wonderful resource to look forward to when it is published.

This book would be useful for someone struggling to come up with themes for poems. It doesn’t explain or provide examples on how to write poetry. It is a comprehensive list of words as prompts. Each word comes with an additional set of words to include in the poem, which are mostly synonyms or somehow related to the main word (although I don’t know what Hero has to do with sandwich). I wished it had been arranged better, perhaps according to theme. I would have liked if it included examples or some of the author’s work with an explanation of some kind. And I would have liked if there was some variety, providing different kinds of prompts for different kinds of minds. For me, it got boring to encounter word after word.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
More than a book with guidelines for writing poems... it's a prepared notebook with titles about which poem to write about... I'd say it's good e ough for a writing class ... but I can't think of any other reason why someone would buy or use this book

This is exactly what it says it is. A book wherein each page is a word topic, a full page of wide-spaced lines for writing, and ten prompt words at the bottom to help you associatively consider the topic.

I did feel some poetry form examples interspersed throughout the open space, or quotes from poets about writing, would have helped add a little more depth and personality to the journal.

Create A Poem would make an encouraging gift to a beginning writer and/or be a handy way to establish a daily writing habit.

Thank you to NetGalley and Chartwell Books for an ecopy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Create a Poem published by Chartwells Books is a useful journal for people who aspire to start writing poetry.

The book contains an assortment of poetic prompts and the prompts are paired with 10 words one can use to create a poem.

It’s sure quite inspirational and makes a great gift for someone who love poetry.

*I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review*

If you are a language arts or creative writing teacher, or lead poetry workshops of any kind (before a poetry slam, for youth groups, etc) then this journal is a resource you can easily use in numerous settings. Each page contains a fairly straightforward writing prompt, as well as a few guiding keywords to help with poem generation: for example, Write a poem about a stranger, suggested keywords to include, mysterious, new, unknown, lonely, outsider, etc.

There isn't a lot of context or substance for the prompts other than the prompt itself and the keywords, meaning that there's a lot of flexibility when it comes to age range for using the book (or giving it as a gift). I found nothing that couldn't be brought into a school setting, and the prompts have the ability to be as simple or complex as you want. For example, you could use the prompts with different poetic forms, like "Write a pantoum about a stranger," etc. I can easily see these pages as being copied as handouts for class exercises, or given as a gift to a budding writer to fill out at their leisure.

There are around 200 pages, so there's quite a range of prompts, and there should be something for just about any writer to work with.

For advanced poets, you may or may not be disappointed, because it's not really meant for an advanced writer (so don't complain that new writers have books like these) but I imagine if you had extended writers block, this could help you get back on board.

This is like a reading workbook. I was expecting to experiment with guided different poetry styles but that’s more for creating your own style of poems with topics and keywords

As an adult, and avid poetry writer all ready, I didn’t find this very inspiring or useful. I think the target market may be children (middle school maybe?), but it didn’t say that in the description. All this book is is a series of one word associations you are supposed to write about, while using a group of preset words they put at the bottom of the page. I could go to google and put in “Poem writing prompts” and most of these will come up in 5 seconds. I was hoping for something more than blank pages and one word prompts.

2/5

Thanks to Chartwell Books & NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

This is really not what I expected from this book, but I did rather enjoy the prompts. They were vague enough to allow room for imagination, but the little help at the bottom prompted ideas further and turned a helpful little exercise into producing effective poetry. Also enjoyed the hopeful introduction and tone.

Would recommend to Creative Writing students as an exercise.

I was disappointed in this one. It's nothing but a series of lined pages with each one telling you to write a poem about a certain subject and then giving you a bunch of words you have to include. For example: Write a poem about purpose, include these words -- goal, target, aim, arrow, mountain, destiny, lost, function, plan, dream. Most of the words seemed cliched and clunky for poetry, and not at all fresh or poetic. It could have been so much better if they at least had you work in unexpected words like "write a poem about love and work in at least two of these words -- sharp, stone, smoke, fresh, stuck, spun, beggars, disheveled, perennial and/or persisted," but these are so boring and elementary. I also have issues with having to work in all of the words and not just getting to pick. Of course you could disregard the instructions and just pick the ones you want to include, but still, they are such boring and predictable words. I'd also like to see more assignments than just an entire book of write on this subject with these words, like maybe write a poem about silence and work in at least 10 words with the S sound for alliteration. There are so many creative prompts this could have given.

I can't see very many people really having a lot of fun with this one, kids or adults, and especially not poets. It is probably best suited for beginner poets and those who enjoy this sort of assignment.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

Create a Poem makes a wonderful gift of inspiration. I especially enjoyed the way each page included words to weave in as a challenge the writer. A clever and enjoyable book upcoming and experienced poets alike.

This book is a journal with around two hundred topics to stimulate ideas for writing a poem. It is suitable for middle-grade children and for those who haven't considered writing poetry before but has a desire to begin. Beyond the prompts 'stranger,' 'blessing,' 'maturity,' and so forth each page has a list of around ten words to include.

I don't think this kind of journal would be very helpful for me to write the kind of poetry I would like. Many of the prompts are abstract concepts paired with words which tend toward the predictable and ordinary, which is quite far from where I find poetic ideas to come from. For me, I feel the urge to write when I come across some striking image or group of words, or when I think of a surprising juxtaposition of ideas, or from some words assembled into a formal scheme I happen to choose, and I wouldn't know how to come up with one of those starting from the places they suggest. It would be easier to come up with generic blog posts this way.

Perhaps the truly exceptional individual can inject enough of their own spirit into the exercise to stray from the tame beginnings to come up with something readers of poetry could appreciate, though, and could be just looking for a couple hundred excuses to find their own muse. And if not, I would imagine that going through the motions would be unlikely to do much harm to the average student poet.

I obtained a copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for sharing my views.