WRITING POETRY: FINALISING WORK

Hi All,

I've been busy over the last months working on a number of poems and 'honing' them so to speak.  I don't know about how you approach writing your poems but I tend to work on several at the same time. 

I get down my initial thoughts- sometimes there's also a concept involved in there but not always, and then work on them.  Sometimes there's an impasse and I leave them for several days (sometimes several weeks) and return to them again and pick up from where I left off.  I find that it is amazing how the break focuses the mind and can solve the problem you've encountered with the poems construction whether its word-choice, or scansion (scan). Some poems demand more time on them than others.  Some poems have been started eight-nine months ago, while others have been written and posted within a couple of days.  There's no magic formula and perhaps some poems demand time to ferment or grow as they are actually mirroring our own thought-processes and emotional responses.

Finalising the poem is also tricky concept.  When is a poem truly finished?  I'm presently working on six poems to differing degrees. When do you feel a poem is actually 'fit for purpose'?  Tricky...

When I used to teach poetry, I used to show my students a copy of the draft manuscript of Wilfred Owen's' Dulce et Decorum est'. They were amazed at the fact that the poem had taken several different forms and versions before becoming the famous poem we recognise today. 

 I hoped that this would help them understand that:

1. poetry rarely is the product of some muse or divine inspiration that allows us to write perfectly formed and finished verse (this equally applies to prose) writ on stone and inviolate like the Ten Commandments

2. poetry is graft and poems (and prose) have to be worked upon and may undergo many revisions and changes until the writer is satisfied that s/he has created a semblance of a poem, a finished version 

3.  even the great poets had to work on their poetry.  This was a great confidence-boost for my students who often thought that great and skilled poets could merely bang out a fantastic poem at whim. I should imagine this rarely happened.  The students always felt more confident about their own creations after this and saw the process of revision as a vital part of the 'craft'.

When I'm writing, I rely on a feeling that it may be good enough to at least be work in progress.  I often post poems that are work in progress and then return to them and revise later. You may have seen revisions in my poems when I've re-posted them on the blog. 

A great way of achieving a degree of quality control is to show your work to a trusted friend or friends whose opinion you respect and you know will give you honest and constructive feedback.  Never be afraid of asking for and acting on advice - it's invaluable and has helped me many times.