Intention and Critique

[Achebe]

If the author doesn't know what he is writing, and writing is subconscious and "therapy" why even edit at all? Especially if the editing is coming from people who are outside of your subconcious. Perhaps editing based on critique actually hurts your poem?

As much as it pains me, I have to agree. The initial writing of it would be the end game.

And, I have no problem with that at all. Just don't post it in intensive and then tell everybody that you can't change anything because it was too heartfelt and personal.

Know thyself.

---

Poets might make deliberate word choices, but meaning choices?  That's up to the reader, and the meaning will shift once it's out of the writer's head. 

Yes, this is where the rub is: the tension between reader and writer over who gets to determine what the poem means (if it means anything at all). This conflict plays itself out here every day.

But, yeah, that's kind of at the heart of what I took away from the quote. I think it requires a re-imagining of what it means to be an effective writer.

Wait, there's a lot of waffle going on here.
First, the LITERAL meaning of the poem should be obvious, otherwise the author is just a bad communicator.
We are (presumably) talking about second and third level meanings.

For instance, in the Eliot piece that I posted, we can debate endlessly about the meaning of 'the vast waters'. What is the significance of 'vast'? So many things. Eliot himself would have chosen that word because of its richness (=multiplicity of meanings).
At a literal level we know that the poet is talking about vast waters and not a colostomy.
At a symbolic level, the poem is open to interpretation because there is no defined meaning.

Now as for writing being therapy - there is such a thing as dual purpose. People run because the endorphin release makes them happy, but they also set absolute levels of accomplishment. No runner thinks that his running is as good as Haile Gabrelassie's just because at the end of the day, both are 'happy' (although Haile earned a shitload of dough and probably had a reason to be happy)
Likewise, writing is therapy, but good writing is better therapy.

Now stop splitting hairs and do something useful, like invading North Korea.