Ok, I know we're not supposed to talk about workshopping, but I just have to say that for me, it was a really positive experience. Thanks to everyone who took the time to read and comment on the poem, and thank you especially to those who saw the flaws. I think Jodi is right--I am not done with this poem yet.
I've been working very hard for the last six weeks on a new project. I am the managing editor for six new magazines that are launching October 1. That in itself is irrelevant, but I am finding that my work as an editor is not. It has forced me to be so very aware of words and word choices and how the change of one word can change the meaning or direction of a piece. It relates to poetry for me. My immense respect for poetry comes from this need to have every word be meaningful. In my prose writing, my journal and newspaper articles--basically anywhere else I write, the focus is not so much on efficiency of words. In poetry, I want each word I write to speak volumes; choosing the right word becomes the most important part of the process for me.
On the other hand, I can't write that way, not at all. I was inspired to hear that Peter Riley basically writes down whatever hits his mind and flows to his fingers at the time and then it becomes a process of revision. I think that must be the way I work. The poem I handed out last night was like that, I guess. I was half way through writing it before I realized I'd stopped writing about what I'd intially started with and deleted the first six or seven lines of the poem.
Anyway, the word's the thing, isn't it?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment