...teaching
The students are splendid. They bring to workshop years of experience as surgeons, accountants, social workers, coffee roasters, hair stylists—and as writers. I've never seen a “sitting alone in my room...” poem at the Attic. The poets are open to experiment and are deeply involved in their work and words. After a course ends, they often keep meeting on their own to critique work and talk about books of poetry, a sign of their commitment.
...a book to read
I recommend Random House Word Menu in every writing course I teach. It's very helpful because it organizes language by subject matter. I use it daily. For the past several years I've been smitten by the poetry of Susan Stewart. Will someone please recommend a finer contemporary poet writing in English so I can break away? But read The Forest, Columbarium, and Red Rover—to me these collections are reminders that the sublime is possible and present in our art. They make me work harder. If you are intrigued by the cross-pollination of science and poetry, a book of essays I've been enjoying is Contemporary Poetry and Contemporary Science by Robert Crawford, ed., Oxford University Press. 2006.
...writing advice
Give up often, but do it during your daily scheduled writing. Ritualize what's important to you. Practice all the powers of poetry—the musical, the incantatory. Prose is for paragraphs.