Suzanne Rhodes, a longtime poet and teacher, offers The Roar on the Other Side as an introductory guide to poetry for students (junior high and up). Focusing on the importance of sight and the necessity of practice, Rhodes easily communicates the joy of words to her readers and helps them see how good poetry binds all seemingly--contradictory things together.
Students will emerge from this book with a good handle on the basics of writing poetry and a new appreciation for the awesome world in which we live. It covers poetic tools (similes, metaphors, figurative language, etc); forms (sonnets, haiku, syllabic verse); tricks (assonance, alliteration, rhyme); genres (lyric, narrative, epic, ballad, etc.); and exercises that encourage students to experiment more.