I was thirteen years old when Kennedy was inaugurated. All I remember was a poet named Robert Frost reading a poem he wrote for the inauguration. He was very feeble looking and read slowly. He died two years later. He was the poet of that generation. He had won four Pulitzers for his poetry. That is the only memory that has stuck in my mind–this old man reading a poem.

The poem I write usually finds me.  I just record it.  Something happens to me.  I just have to get it down.  Or lose it.  And in the beginning I do not edit at all.  That comes later.  I can never predict when my poems come.  At that point getting it down and working on it is the most important thing in the whole world.  I just obey my Muse.  I usually know when I am done.  There are no more words.  The hard work comes later–the editing that is.  I am lucky.  I can run poems by my wife.  She has good instincts.

I am very aware how my written words sound to my ear.  It does not matter what it is–a blog, essay, poem, etc.  It always makes a difference when I have read a piece out loud.  That was what was first–the oral tradition.  People did not have books.  They sat around a fire reciting their stories.  When I read things I have written out loud, I find errors.  Sometimes I have deleted a word or the tense is wrong.  Other times a word may not ring true and I have to insert a different one.  Sometimes there are duplication or repetition.  If I don’t want a phrase there, I may have to move it or delete it.  I may not like the cadence or sounds the words make.  It is always easier to find the errors after I have read the piece out loud.

Why is it your own “blood” does not validate you?  My writing growing up was always taken for granted by my immediate family–my mom and dad and two sisters.  In the beginning it was my letter writing.  In the sixties I started keeping a journal.  In the late seventies I wrote poetry.  And now I am going on the fifth year of keeping a web site and blog.  Both of my parents are now dead.  I am not sure if my two sisters ever go on my web sites.  They usually don’t comment on them.  My writing is who I am, what is going on which is important to me.

Gratefully my wife cares about my writing, as well as other friends.  I found out I had a talent for making people laugh at open mikes.  And that is a validation of my writing although humor is not the only type of writing I do.  I keep getting hits on my web sites and that is encouraging.  And occasionally I get a poem published in a literary magazine.  I guess we choose our friends.  We can’t choose our family.  Up till his dying day my father who lived until ninety-two was more impressed with money than anything I wrote.  I was a failure in that area.  That still hurts.  Sometimes you have to go outside of your family for validation.  And that was my case.

What would I care about if I go after my wife?  I can’t take my things with me.  I know from dust I come and from dust I return.  So what do I want to leave someone after I die–not much.  The only thing I care about and hope I can leave in good hands is my journals and poetry.  I would like to think at least a poem or two or three would outlive me.  Money can’t buy happiness.  Bill Gates, at one point, was the richest man in the world.  So what does he do but pour billions in a foundation so, maybe, he can make a difference.  Each person wonders if he/she will leave any kind of legacy.  And there are multiple ways of doing that.  It could be the memories your children have of you who in turn impact others.  Memories of you may not die so quickly.  Sometimes anyway.  Many people when they approach the end of their life wonder about the legacy they will leave behind.  At least I do.

Every poem I write is pared to the essential.  That was the one lesson I had to learn over and over in my two years of creative writing.  The beauty of a written piece is always what is left out–the empty spaces.  I had to look at my poems repeatedly to see what was necessary to say.  I do not have to say something directly if it was said already even if was only said implicitly.  Some teachers may use the statement, “Show don’t tell”.  This is very difficult to do since it is my own work.  It is hard to view it objectively.  Of course, a good editor helps this process.  It is very common for a beginner to resist this process.  Everything they write they think is “gold.”

I am a little luckier than most:  my wife is a fine editor.  I do not hesitate to change something if her advice is on target.  If her criticism is right, I will make the necessary changes.  Your instincts have to be accurate.  If a line (or a phrase or a word) can be taken out and the poem still stands, it was not necessary.  Sometimes the opposite is necessary:  you need to add something.  There may be ambiguity you don’t want or maybe you want it there.  You, also, may have to rearrange some lines.  Your piece is not coherent.  The reader can’t follow the poem easily.  What are you trying to achieve with the piece?  Sometimes that is not an easy question to answer and may determine the changes you make.  You always have to make the decision when to leave the poem alone (and come back to it later) or whether it is even worth working on.  Every word has to count.

When I Read A Poem…

Author: siggy

When I read a poem of mine in public, I have the audience for the first ten seconds.  If I don’t capture their attention right away, I lose them so the beginnings of my poems have to be interesting and are important.  I do not read a poem in public if there is any part of it I am not satisfied with.  I can’t read the poem confidently and with the right inflections and feelings if I have any doubts concerning the poem.  I have to believe in the whole package, that the poem was put together well.  So with any piece of writing:  you can’t have any major doubts of it, if you want to submit it for publication.  It has to be as good as you can get it.

When I worked on a poem, it was the most important thing in the whole world.  Until recently, practically all my poems were generated from my journals.  When I wanted to convert an entry to a poem, the time I spent working on it was the most important thing in the whole world.  I would lose myself in the poem.

Time would disappear.  I would first want to get it (the particular experience I wanted to capture) all down.  That was the function of my journal.

I was not afraid initially of being redundant.  I knew I could go back and eliminate the repetition.  Then I would go back, condense it, shape it, get it to the point I could not do any more with it.

Then I would read it to my wife and listen to her reaction and any suggestions she may have.  And go back to it.  This may happen the next day or whenever I had time although I did not want to lose interest in the poem.

I would again look at, refine it and polish it, see what I could eliminate, what got in the way, see if any phrase needed rearranging, if the timing was wrong.  I did not want to tamper too much with the original.  I would work with the poem until I could not do any more with it again.  I would have my wife hear it again.

I was very attuned to how it sounded out loud.  Did it need emphasizing here or there, did I like the way a word or phrase or line sounded to my ear.  At some point I considered the poem finished.  A lot of this was done by instinct.  Some poems I am never happy with.  And others I simply discard or look at some other time in the future.

Down the road I may venture to read it in public.  That takes a lot of courage.  Many do not make it that far.  Few get to the keyboard.  I have to feel the entry has possibilities.  That is somewhat the process of my poems.

Editing Your Work…

Author: siggy

Editing your own work is always painful.  Having one or two persons who can give you helpful feedback is invaluable.  My wife is such a person and I don’t take her for granted.  I like what Stephen King said in a book he wrote about writing, ‘take out what is not the story.’  It is not easy to do.  And an outsider is in a much better position to tell you that.  I have one test:  if you take something out of your story (poem or whatever) and you do not miss it, it did not belong there.  The beauty of a well written piece is what is left out–like a beautiful piece of music where every note counts.  You do not want to discourage the reader with clutter.  You want every word to count.  Having said that, it is not easy to do.  A good editor is worth their weight in gold.