Note to self: the stanza is your friend
I’ve doing a lot of revision lately - and I’m still enjoying the work of revision almost more than the work of creating new poems - and most of the revisions involve major changes to the form of the poems: breaking long free form poems into shorter stanzas, making each stanza a self-contained unit. Exercising this control tightens the poems, forces me to find the overarching idea and how each stanza contributes - or does not - to the development of that idea. It’s been wonderful, exciting. I even revised a poem using the “many two-line stanzas” form I’ve been seeing everywhere and, frankly, am skeptical of. But over the weekend I used it on a poem that’s been giving me trouble since the summer and wow, did it really turn the poem around. Forced me to cut extraneous language, tighten the narrative, hone the language; there is a growing tension now as the work progresses to the final stand-alone line. Okay, I get it. I still think it’s a form that should be used sparingly, but I get it now.
This is the work of revision, the hard glorious work of revision.
Filed under My process, Poetry |5 Responses to “Note to self: the stanza is your friend”
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I like revision too. It is the moment when I feel like I can concentrate all myself into the task, when luck and inspiration have simmered down and work can begin!
Any peeks at your revisions?
i need to practice more revision…that seems to be something i struggle with. when i write a poem i have a hard time picking it up again.
I just found your blog and so enjoyed reading backwards! The look of it is great and your writing lovely. I look forward to more. By the way, I’m married to a Swiss-German guy from Mollis. I can’t imagine what it must be like as an ex-pat and look forward to your insight!
Julia - I’ll think about putting some up password-protected - the ones I just finished working on are almost ready to go out the door to a journal, so I don’t want to put them on line.
Michelle and Elizabeth thanks for stopping by.
Totally understand!