I have to confess I am surprised at how much interest this subject has generated. When I write a review or an article I tend to just write it through, then let it sit until the next day (if I can - when I worked for The Inquirer, you often could just write the piece and trust your editor and the copy desk). Next, I'll read it through and make whatever changes seem necessary or desirable.
With poetry, a bit tends to come (because writing a poem, for me, mostly involves listening), followed by silence. So I'll wait until something else comes. That may be later in the day or the next day or, sometimes, days and even weeks later. Occasionally, a particular word or phrase will strike me as, if not exactly false, then not exactly right, either. So I wait and listen.
But, as I have said here a number a times, I am a latitudinarian about poetry and poets. There are a lot of different poets who write different kinds of poetry in different ways. No size fits all.
With poetry, a bit tends to come (because writing a poem, for me, mostly involves listening), followed by silence. So I'll wait until something else comes. That may be later in the day or the next day or, sometimes, days and even weeks later. Occasionally, a particular word or phrase will strike me as, if not exactly false, then not exactly right, either. So I wait and listen.
But, as I have said here a number a times, I am a latitudinarian about poetry and poets. There are a lot of different poets who write different kinds of poetry in different ways. No size fits all.
I'd call myself a utilitarian rather than a ltitudinarian, but I basically agree that there is no One True Way, and that no one size fits all.
ReplyDeleteI'd add that even the same person can use different methods at different times for different results. We're not even fixed into one true way within ourselves. (My "tone" for this essay is not my usual tone, for example; I sort of feel like I was channelling Ed Champion, in a good way. LOL)
Thanks for the link, and for the previous link to Mary Karr's interview that set off this discussion, and generated my own thinking into a response.