Poet-critic Burt’s 'Don’t Read Poetry: A Book About How to Read Poetry' (Basic, May) is an accessible, inclusive, and, most of all, friendly guide to poetry.

Basic, $28 (320p) ISBN 978-0-465-09450-9 In this eloquent literary primer, Burt, a poet and Harvard English professor, contends with poetry’s reputation for inaccessibility.

Poetry Slam Basics meets from 7 to 8:30 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month at the Bettendorf Public Library, 2950 Learning Campus Drive. The class is free, and all are welcome.

"The Poetry Home Repair Manual: Practical Advice for Beginning Poets" by Ted Kooser, University of Nebraska Press, $19.95 What would be wrong with a world in which everybody were writing poems ...

If you go What Ted Kooser, 2004-2006 Poet Laureate of the United States, speaks and reads from his work for the library’s 16th Annual Western Book Day When 3 p.m. Saturday, March 5; discussio… ...

Ball hopes to teach poetry basics to more young children in other schools. On the second Tuesday evening of each month, you can find Ball at the Barnes and Noble cafe in Walnut Creek discussing ...