For the last forty-five years, the distinguished poets Molly Peacock and Phillis Levin have read and discussed nearly every poem they've written—an unparalleled friendship in poetry. Here Peacock collects her most important essays on poetic form and traces the development of her formalist aesthetic across their lifelong back-and-forth. A Friend Sails in on a Poem offers a charming, psychologically wise, and metaphorically piquant look at navigating craft and creativity. This is a book both for serious poets as well as for anyone who wants a deep dive into the impact of friendship on art itself.