First published in 1980 as a handbook for teachers. I think many of the points also apply to adults. I'm all in favour of using constraints to make writers pay attention to the medium. Acrostics aren't unduly restrictive. And I like the idea of using word-play to take the preciousness out of poetry. I'd go a bit further and suggest that people write "one-pagers", not worrying whether they're poetic enough.
I like Stephen Buechner's poem "The Fingerprint" - "As it starts in the centre,/ As it grows from in to out,/ As a stone into the water/ The shape becomes its size/ Like a tree with its lines"
She writes "Some people sill think that a poem is not a poem unless it rhymes, and because children are brought up on nursery rhymes they tend to use rhyme when first asked to write poems. They generally use it very badly ... I make no apology for deliberately banning the use of rhyme when teaching a group of children for the first time" (p.72)
On p.87-88 there's an interesting example of turning prose into poetry -
The boy was as free as a bird that had been trapped in a cage and as lively as a leaf, which is all wrinkled and dry. He sits in the corner of a room where the door is locked and so is his mind but in a different way. His mind is locked on the life he had once led and the freedom he had once had
becomes
The Boy
Free as a bird trapped in a cage,
Lively as a leaf wrinkled and dry.
He sits in the corner of a room.
The door is locked and so is his mind,
Locked on the life he once led,
Locked on the freedom he had once known
The poem version has line-breaks, 4 beats/line (mostly) and repetition
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