Between tonight and Friday, I plan to take my folder of unsuccessful drafts of poems written from my grad school years and either use them in some way or delete them outright.
At some point in their beginning years, nearly all writers are told that they should save their rough drafts, notes, and less successful work in case there is something worth salvaging for future pieces. While I'm sure that this is a sound idea, it's never done me much good.
While I've taken on occasion to saving drafts of poems that were completed to my satisfaction, I have very rarely gone back to something that didn't work and made it even likable for me to read. In the rare instance that I've revisited a poem written from grad school (once or twice), I've made it more readable, but that's no big thing, considering how much of a mess my poetry from that time in my life was.
In spite of having kept a journal out of discipline for nearly five years, I still tend to formulate a lot of my poems in my head before they even hit paper or a Word file. I've even lost work and have been able to salvage it from memory. When I write my poems down, a lot of them seem to be either hit or miss, with little in-between.
I'm sure I'm oversimplifying my writing process at least a bit, but I do know this: as far as most of my past failures from a decade back go, I seem content to leave them as such. Should I really have a desire to go back and work on the two "Freak Machine" poems I tried to write in order to compliment my pseudo-imprint (later blog)? Even a cursory read tends to make me say, "NOOO!" Still, I want to look at all of the poems one more time, if only to try and end my recent dry spell. We'll see what can be saved.
8 comments:
you can always re-visit high school poems
Bret "the eagle" Kerr
I'm a magpie and save nearly everything and tend to purchase handmade notebooks so that I am less inclined to lose them.
I strongly believe in recycling and reusing.
Anyway, your ongoing discussion of your writing process inspired me to post something about my own process as well:
http://ianthal.blogspot.com/2007/08/revising-backwards.html
i always like to be optimistic about the poems that obviously suck upon reading them now, like maybe there's just one line or image that i could completely start over with. sometimes for me it just works out naturally, like as i am writing a new poem, i remember some image i used way before and it fits better in this new poem.
but even that's being hopeful, ha.
it's funny that you posted this, because one of my high school friends just found a poem i wrote in high school and sent it to me. at least she thought it was still good :)
Comments galore. Thanks, guys.
Bret:
My high school work looks more like grade school to me. You're an evil man to dig up that grave. Evil!
Ian:
Of course, I still do the journal thing (and I would love recommendations for a new one, given that I'm almost done with another) but I use it more due to the fact that a poem comes out better if I write it out once or twice before I type it up. I do save the books but never go back to them. Maybe I should a take a week to do so once I finish the current one.
I never kept a journal in college or grad school (a mistake, I'm sure), so without even rough notes like that that to accompany these drafts, it's even harder to see potential in this old work.
Lisa: I find that the lines don't matter much since I revisit the same themes again and again. If I can communicate the theme in a different, better poem, the older, less successful piece doesn't seem to matter. This is probably not the best way, as there is at least one piece people like my past instructor, Tom Daley, would like to see finished. Maybe that needs to change too.
I was loathe to read old poems for a long time, thanks to a certain professor with proclivities towards Eastern film. The quote lingered with me for over a decade, and still leaves a taste like sour Tums
"Teenage poetry is nothing but masturbation on paper."
I had completely forgotten about that statement. I believe we were in the same classroom when he said it too. A little unfair, I would say in hindsight, but also ironic. Since entering the open mike world, and especially since hosting Stone Soup, I have seen amongst the adult poets FAR more instances of poets pulling out their penises in public (metaphorically and male-centrically speaking) than I ever did in public. Maybe if you don't learn self-control when you're younger...
Recommendations for notebooks? I find that attending any local Open Studios often brings one face to face with a local book binder selling her wares (they usually are women, oddly enough.) Sometimes, when I can't wait for an Open Studio, I check out a stationary or craft store which will often have hand-made notebooks for sale.
One semester, when I was in college, a number of the profs in my department (philosophy, actually) assigned us to keep journals on our readings. just fell into the habit after that.
My last comment should have read "than I ever did in school." Not "...in public."
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