This small book is compiled from essays written to myself while learning the poetry game– how I organized my thoughts and conclusions on the subject. They are, if nothing else, practical and workable tools to evaluate and create with. Things like... What beats Show-Me-Don't-Tell-Me hands down? And what the three primary component parts of poetry are (they are not taught)? Once you know them they can be used to improve or salvage a poem or a poetry project. Seriously. Not popular thoughts— these paragraphs are directly opposed to some of the most accepted ideas I’ve run across. However, those accepted ideas, once applied, often stopped me dead in my creative tracks. Once in a while when the road has gotten hard and it seems even harder ahead, I dust off my hat and find what I had already known and forgotten: importances and essentials.