08-12-2014, 01:10 AM
i have shoeboxes full of post-its, scribblings on note paper, quick phrases jotted down on cocktail napkins, etc...
sometimes they turn into long poems that are then pared back to shorter poems. sometimes i write long poems that i then break up into several poems because they just don't work as is or the themes are too broad or disjointed and need to be separated.
and sometimes i just word-vomit onto a page and pick out the best chunks (there's a pleasant image) and save them for another day.
and yeah, what everyone else said: edit, edit, edit. and then edit again. i have poems that are "finished" that i still workshop because no matter how much you might believe you've written the definitive piece of poetry that all other poems will now be judged by, it can always be better. always.
i'd much rather read a 4 line poem that says exactly what it needs to say in those few short lines than a 27 line poem that's full of superfluous baggage.
sometimes they turn into long poems that are then pared back to shorter poems. sometimes i write long poems that i then break up into several poems because they just don't work as is or the themes are too broad or disjointed and need to be separated.
and sometimes i just word-vomit onto a page and pick out the best chunks (there's a pleasant image) and save them for another day.
and yeah, what everyone else said: edit, edit, edit. and then edit again. i have poems that are "finished" that i still workshop because no matter how much you might believe you've written the definitive piece of poetry that all other poems will now be judged by, it can always be better. always.
i'd much rather read a 4 line poem that says exactly what it needs to say in those few short lines than a 27 line poem that's full of superfluous baggage.