April 30, 2007

Yes.



April, Fidelity, Signs, Proposal, Orchis, Making the Crane, You Were You, Antietam, The Sacred Heart, Muscadet, Vocation, Elegy, The Crowd, Love Poem for Virginia, The Spell, Beauty, Love Poem for Wednesday, Against Grief, Your Mother, The Minotaur Speaks, Love Poem for College, The Taxonomy of Houses, Love Poem for Los Angeles, How I Got Hit, Fidelity (II), I Don’t Fear Death, My God, Fugue, Monday, and The World War Speaks.

*

What I learned:

-Repetition may be the hobgoblin of small minds, but it is the saving grace of NaPoWriMo. The tireless pace of drafting forced me to "allow" myself to reuse a syntactical framework over and over, which turned out to be a useful experiemnt. Sometimes I liked the latter incarnation better than the first one, which is usually where I would have stopped.

-I'm a love poet. That's the relationship dynamic I'm drawn to, again and again, even when it is strictly metaphorical. No point in being ashamed of it.

-When I don't have time for more thoughtful revision, the most important question to ask is: Does this poem really start 3 lines in? Could it end 3 lines sooner?

-I don't have to be in a a studio or a barn or a vacuum to write. I really can draft a poem on the metro. I really can draft a poem watching TV. I really can draft a poem in bed. And when I have those glimmers of ideas I really should get my lazy self up and get it onto paper, eventually. I'll be glad I did.

I'm tempted to rework the strongest of these, at least half, into a chapbook--a Book of April 2007, essentially. I like the idea of reading poems grouped in terms of when they were conceived, versus an explicit thematic thread. The most liberating thing is that there's just too many poems here to rationalize that they belong in an existing manuscript. Time to think beyond the first book.

Congratulations to all who attempted, particularly those who survived, and thanks to Maureen for getting us all wound up...

26 comments:

Greg said...

Very nice! A good start to Nat. Poetry Month. Drop by Enchilada's for my own humble tribute....

steve roberts said...

Well, I must say, I'm pretty impressed by your poem as well. It's fun to do NaPoWriMo and read poetry blogs I would have never known about before. Good luck and keep writing. I'll keep reading it.

Brent Goodman said...

SB - Sorry I missed a few already but I loved today's. Fav line:

she should have cleared out her freezer, knowing
the casseroles would come.

. . . and how you hit that ending! wow. Thanks.

Unknown said...

I, too, am impressed with these as drafts. Makes me want to meet up with you for tea (with our respective stacks of poems to discuss).

sam of the ten thousand things said...

Wonderful imagery Sandra. I like this piece.

Sandra said...

Thanks to folks for commenting on drafts--I find it really does help me keep going at this mad rate...

mgushuedc said...

Sandra--Orchis is very very nice work. And a great example of how to ride a poem's conceit, and how to travel--orchis -> flower -> male -> Pentheus -> the bacchae. Orchis was a word Celan used effectively. Keep up the good work and I look forward to you crossing the finish line.

Dave said...

"Antietam" rocks. I'd link from my sidebar blog if you weren't going to disappear it. (typo: "canon")

-Dave
http://www.vianegativa.us

Sandra said...

Hey Dave--thanks for catching that typo! The perils of late-night posting. = ) You've got an interesting site, I'll have to start visiting...

Ivy said...

Antietam: I like this poem, too, Sandra. :-)

sam of the ten thousand things said...

I like "Antietam". Strong imagery, especially in the second half of the piece.

Shafer said...

It's nice to read a poem in which things happen.

Nick said...

Nice work. ... Yes, I'm still in but barely hanging on.

Sandra said...

Ah, Nick, you hardy and diligent soul. = ) It's turning out to be very hard, drafting one and then fearing the next, with no breath caught in between. Seems like enough is getting put down to sustain later revision, though, so there's hope in the long run.

Good sports like Sam, cheering me on, help a great deal. As does reading, reading, reading.

And wine.

Thanks for visiting, Ivy, and Shafer--I too like poems in which, well, things actually happen. Verbs are our friends.

Robin said...

I've missed the last three days. But now that my taxes are done....

sam of the ten thousand things said...

Enjoyed The Spell, Sandra.

Carly said...

I think Frank would like to meet Beauty. Meow!!!

Nick said...

Good one, Sandra. The last couplet drives the rhetoric home. Thanks for posting this.

sam of the ten thousand things said...

List tag...

Steven D. Schroeder said...

Ouch! I hope you're recovering from the allergic reaction okay...

James Midgley said...

Hullo, Sandra. Do you have a chapbook/collection published?

James

Sandra said...

Thanks, everyone, for the feedback/book tags/virtual chicken soup.

Billy, I'm flattered but entirely undeserving of any titles, unless Saucy Wench of the Blogosphere is open.

James, no chapbook/collection for me. Hope springs eternal, as does one's status as a bridesmaid finalist.

Nick said...

Sandra, keep them coming!

James Midgley said...

Interesting! Your work certainly seems more than up to scratch.

mgushuedc said...

Congratulations! You made it!

Nathan Austin said...

With regards to the thing you learned about beginning 3 lines in or ending 3 lines early — I found that my quick revisions sometimes involved cutting the poem in two somewhere, and moving the end to the beginning. (I think it'd even work for poetry less fragmentary than mine...)