Originally written in 2000 as his Master’s thesis, Raymond P. Hammond’s *Poetic Amusement* has been passed around underground as a digital file for ten years among those associated with *The New York Quarterly*. The book escaped formal publication till now due to Hammond’s work schedule and his having to assume control of *The New York Quarterly* in 2002 after the death of founding editor William Packard. As provocative today as it was when it was written, what began as Hammond’s observations of the influence of “po’ biz” and writing programs on contemporary American poetry became a timeless treatise on poetry itself. Using his experience with NYQ and devouring many literary critics across the ages from the ancient Greeks to contemporary critics, Hammond examines at once both our current literary environment and the essence of poetry. In seeking to answer the questions “What is poetry?” and “Where does poetry come from?” for himself, he encourages readers to ask those questions for and of themselves as well. Relevant and accessible to readers and writers of poetry and to those who think they don’t know or want to know what poetry is, *Poetic Amusement* will anger, elevate and inspire all those who read it.