Poetry Forum Guidelines

In "Writing Down the Bones" by Natalie Goldberg, she describes the editing process.

There are two ways of approaching editing; one is that you say to yourself that the creator has had space to run wild and now it's time for the editor (who wears a pinstriped suit) to come and along and make everything nice and tidy.

But this is the ego, trying to conceal your honesty.

The other is that the editor is a warrior, cutting away all that is unneccesary.

I generally, don't edit much at all. Often I will waffle, trying desperately to say something meaningful, for ages and then suddenly it'll just come out and then I will take away some of the waffling. Generally though, I won't go through something and reword things or play around with it too much though.

 

They say the best thing to do is leave it alone, put it out of sight for a few months, then pull it out and start the revision then. That way you're getting a fresher look at it

 

I revise/edit just about everything I write, if I think the piece has potential. I'm getting to the point with my newer stuff that I don't do it as much, or don't remove/change things to a great degree, It's more of a tightening up, taking a word or two out, switching to a different word and whatnot. For a long time, though, I would make drastic changes. There was a method I had to doing it too, because I noticed that I would go through a long drought of writer's block, but when I started writing again, my skill jumped up a notch. Whenever that happened I'd go back through a lot of my older pieces and start revising them.

I've been doing an insane amount of revising lately, or maybe a better word would be "adapting" ... it's for a new project. I've been using several of my personal favorites and incorporating bits, pieces, or the entire thing into an epic work. It's been... difficult, because the "epic" is in the past tense and switching the tense on something I already consider complete is proving to be a challenge. It's the good kind of a challenge, though....

 

Excellent! Thank you all for the insights.

I let poetry flow, in the moment, and return to revise if another moment calls for it.

Ok, i went ahead and merged the stickies so there is just this one now... feel free to add your perceptions on any poetry related matters here.

Sure, just let me know if you want poems merged or if you have any questions.

 

I don't change it...most of the time I don't even go back and read it. Too weird for me.

 

Far out,,,so true so true

 

I totally agree. I actually spend more time replying to other ppl's poems than I do posting my own! Such creative fusions....it's truly amazing.

 

I both post and I also read and comment on the poems I like.

 

So would helpful advice on a poem you didn't like be like "that sucked, make it better" or soemthign? Or should it be personal, you know, like "i hate you" that kinda thing?

 

I agree..but sometimes you may read something but don't know how to respond. I mean it just seems boring and uninteresting, not to mention not good 'habit' to say the same things over again. "Yeah I love it, you have real talent" just doesn't mean the same after 50 million times of saying it. Would you rather say something you mean or something that's been watered down? I would personally like to say something meaningful, and if it touches me then I let the person know. I don't really care if anyone reads my work. It's there for me, and if you like it, then so be it.

 

Honestly, gdhmomchild, I don't think you were being harsh at all. You see it in every poetry site these days - people who wanna hear that their poetry is GREAT without giving the other artists a lil well-earned praise for a job well done. Hopefully, these guidelines are harsh ENOUGH to make the perpitrator (spelling?) learn to show more care for the poetic movement of others

 

i agree people should respond. i have only posted one of my poems so far and i have plenty more that i have written so i hope when i post more everyone will read and respond. i'd like to know what everybody thinks.thanks.i look forward to reading everybodys poetry.

 

Ya know what...


Most people that only post & never comment are starved for attention. They have real feelings inside but have never learned to support others. Giving praise to others is something that's learned. Remember the line in George Harrisons "My Guitar Gently Weeps" "with every mistake we must surely be learing?" Most people are the product of our selfish society. They were never taught to care for others; only to look out for themselves.

I'm glad that this was brought up here; it helps to teach the many lost souls that it's important to share their feelings in verse. But it's also important we learn to give and nurture each other. Receiving support for bearing our souls is very important. Thank you gdhmomchild.

Now that I've had my say I'll get off my soap box. Sorry it's been so long since I've been here. I've been very sick. Had to go on chemo to kill the hep-C I acquired sharing needles with all those other Hippies so very long ago.

I'm going to make a real effort to hang here more often. If we don't share & support each other; we will never survive this mess we all need to live in.

 

My poem has one of the lines in my signature.


"Creations branches reach beyond our perceptions
Our grasp of the sum is limited by our form
We create grand distraction to fill our needs
Then lose our souls to delusions of grandeur"

 

I like your poem Old Hippy, the words are so true

 

I'll 2nd that...

 

I belive you when you say you got bugged

 

Honest? You want to be honest? Give me a break! I'm an American, after all.

 

It's amazing this thread is so popular and yet I still find poems with aproximately 100 readers and only 2-6 replies. That's like 2-6% feedback. If one wants to improve their writing, does 2-6% feedback really help? You agree with this thread but yet what have these hundreds done about it? If you all agree with this thread then replies should be much much higher, ya think? I say hypocrit because I've noticed some poems may not be that great in many eyes so you feel like not replying. I found one poem written many weeks ago that didn't have a reply so I became the first. Not everyone is a hypocrit though. Just my opinion on this matter. Take it or leave it.

 

There used to be a bunch of people on this forum who were "regular" contributors and writers, but then they've either gotten too busy or just stopped coming here, while more and more new people come in and don't really bother to respond or understand the concept of responding to others.
Maybe it's the lack of an actual community on this forum.