Most of the poetry I've written before this class has been what we call "Muse Writing." I'm used to the process of letting my conscious thoughts go and pouring onto the page what's underneath. The idea that this is but the first step in actual poetry writing doesn't surprise me, but it does make me reconsider old poems. I'm starting to wonder whether I should go back through them, and instead of revising the poem as a whole, take "moments of originality" out and use them as means to create new poetry.
It's hard to judge how much to keep. Just the imagery? The whole idea? Keep the poem and simply revise small sections?
The question always arises:
Can you use the same twist of words, the same metaphor, the same string of alliteration in a poem with a different meaning or inspiration later on? (Assuming of course, that they would apply somewhat to the new idea or inspiration that sparked the new poem.)
Or do those words belong with the thoughts that originally created them?
How do you feel about this? Has anyone else been thinking about touching up old poems as well as writing new ones?
First, this is a great post. And to answer your question,yes! I have looked at my past work as I have a folder on my computer that has hundreds of them. I find myself not wanting to revise them, but like you said take ideas, the "moments of originality" out. However, I come to the same problem. When I write I have a situation that I am writing about and it is very difficult for me to pull things out of past topics and mash them together. Even if they compile to become a great poem. It loses meaning to me. When I read one of my old poems I know exactly what it is about and I could probably tell you a story. In this course we have been assigned to write "Muse" work. I have let myself write about something that doesn't follow one topic. When I go back and read them, I can't say I will be able to tell someone what they were about. Instead I'll have to interpret what I thought I meant. I think this is kind of neat. So I wouldn't knock the idea of compiling old poems "moments of originality" into solitary poems, but I would prefer not too.
ReplyDeleteClayton
Sorry it was long winded. haha
I agree with Clayton: this post is a great one, as you point up a difficult problem with writing not only poetry, but also anything else. It's really a question of judgment--that is, how do I judge what's worth keeping and what's worth throwing away, and more particularly, to speak to what Clayton brought up, don't we lose something of the original inspiration, the original contact with the Muse when we excerpt from it? I have a couple of different responses here. First, in the interest of being willing to change something radically (a necessity when you revise), I'm in favor of getting rid of big chunks of what comes out of a Muse write, given that a lot of times it takes us awhile to get going, we're not connecting with the Muse well because we're focused elsewhere, and so on. In short, sometimes it's good to not treat Muse writing as sacred in any way, but instead to be willing to chuck all of it if need be and start again. On the other hand, I've recently (the past couple of years) begun to respect the basic impulse of what I get when I check in with my own Muse, so that when I revise, I try not to take out any of the raw material, though I will drastically change phrasing, imagery, metaphors, etc. Likewise, I'll add a lot of things, but again, the basic thrust of what came out I try not to alter. Now much of this for me is a question of self-trust, something that hasn't come easily to me as a writer; thus, this technique might be worthwhile to me only, or at least those with trust issues like myself. I will say, though, that trusting the basic movement or thrust of a Muse write seems to take a little bit of the difficulty out of knowing where to go with a sprawling, messy piece of free-writing--which can be really helpful, given that if you're like me, you can see about 100 possibilities for a given piece and therefore you become paralyzed when trying to choose: which one's right, what do I do now, etc. That way leads to writer's block. Anyway, there's no one right answer here. I will close, however, by saying that your judgment will improve by reading--that is, the more strong examples of poetry you have, the better your measuring stick will be for your own work.
ReplyDeleteActually, I've just been talking about this issue with a poet-fried, in the context of a piece I've been working on. I'll post my original Muse-write, the painting that occasioned it, and my revisions so far, so that you can (kind of) see what I'm talking about.
ReplyDeleteI was reading Ted Hughes' introduction to the collected works of Sylvia Plath and he said that she never abandoned a poem. Everything she wrote ended up in some sort of published or publishable thing. So apparently she did that... In my personal experience, it can work really well.
ReplyDeleteIndeed--I think of that Hughes comment about Plath's work often.
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