(dog, sleeping, image by jevansch, on Pixabay)
Can you teach an old poem new tricks? Let’s say you have a poem
that’s been around a while, maybe you’ve submitted it once or twice,
but no one’s snatched it up. (There’s no accounting for taste.)
Do you stuff it back in a drawer, move it to the “don’t hold your breath”
file, or—try to make it better? As writers we need to be honest with
ourselves. Are we willing to change what we’ve written? Not just
remove a word or add a comma, but really rework the piece.
Natasha Trethewey—Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Native Guard,
and recent U.S. Poet Laureate—teaches the importance of revision,
as in “re-vision.” Changing our vision for the poem. Maybe we need
to do some research, play with structure (e.g., long poem/short poem,
formal/free verse), experiment with tone, voice, mood.
I’ve heard that poets should read their poems “upside down”—no,
you don’t have to do gymnastics, but you might try starting with
that last line, ending with the first, changing the order of stanzas.
Yes, it takes time, but there’s something freeing about the process
and, actually, it can be fun. So, let’s break out the biscuits and teach
some new tricks!
(dog, jumping, image by woodsilver, on Pixabay)
[Originally posted, May 2020]
These tips may be geared more toward writers, but we also welcome
submissions from artists, including musicians and photographers.
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