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.
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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...
Very nice! A good start to Nat. Poetry Month. Drop by Enchilada's for my own humble tribute....
ReplyDeleteWell, 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.
ReplyDeleteSB - Sorry I missed a few already but I loved today's. Fav line:
ReplyDeleteshe should have cleared out her freezer, knowing
the casseroles would come.
. . . and how you hit that ending! wow. Thanks.
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).
ReplyDeleteWonderful imagery Sandra. I like this piece.
ReplyDeleteThanks to folks for commenting on drafts--I find it really does help me keep going at this mad rate...
ReplyDeleteSandra--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.
ReplyDelete"Antietam" rocks. I'd link from my sidebar blog if you weren't going to disappear it. (typo: "canon")
ReplyDelete-Dave
http://www.vianegativa.us
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...
ReplyDeleteAntietam: I like this poem, too, Sandra. :-)
ReplyDeleteI like "Antietam". Strong imagery, especially in the second half of the piece.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice to read a poem in which things happen.
ReplyDeleteNice work. ... Yes, I'm still in but barely hanging on.
ReplyDeleteAh, 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.
ReplyDeleteGood 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.
I've missed the last three days. But now that my taxes are done....
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed The Spell, Sandra.
ReplyDeleteI think Frank would like to meet Beauty. Meow!!!
ReplyDeleteGood one, Sandra. The last couplet drives the rhetoric home. Thanks for posting this.
ReplyDeleteList tag...
ReplyDeleteOuch! I hope you're recovering from the allergic reaction okay...
ReplyDeleteHullo, Sandra. Do you have a chapbook/collection published?
ReplyDeleteJames
Thanks, everyone, for the feedback/book tags/virtual chicken soup.
ReplyDeleteBilly, 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.
Sandra, keep them coming!
ReplyDeleteInteresting! Your work certainly seems more than up to scratch.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! You made it!
ReplyDeleteWith 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...)
ReplyDelete