[stylist] poem revisions

Fri Jun 19 03:13:37 UTC 2015

Barbara,
You really struck a note in your questions about revisions, and you have
many excellent ideas for doing this.
My suggestion is that you first  ask yourself why you keep writing poetry. 
If your primary goal is to be published, you will definitely want to revise,
tweak, change titles, or last lines in order to be able to keep submitting
that poem.
If you are writing because you just love writing, need an outlet, and want
to protect exactly what your outlet was,you can just keep writing new poems
using what you have learned. Keep organizing them as you have.
If you simply want to leave all of your thoughts to your family, all of your
organizing might be discouraging to someone looking for your work in your
computer. 
If you choose to revise many of those you have, you could use just the most
important of your folders, perhaps combine  the original title, date, first
revision and new date. One extra item that is all important to me is putting
the line length in the title. There is a limit to this in all poetry
contests.
I would encourage you to spend your valuable time to submit what you feel
your best poems are. 
As far as where you start in revision, I can send you and all a list of
everything one looks for in critiquing a poem, and you can follow that list
and check them off one by one,  or just pick one or two items.. I will not
do this unless requested as one needs to want the critiquing first.

Jackie Lee

Poetry is a school in which we learn.
Poetry is the fire in which we burn.
After Delmore Schwartz	 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Barbara
HAMMEL via stylist
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 3:25 PM
To: Pagan Tree
Cc: Barbara HAMMEL; Writers' Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] poem revisions

It was Picasso who had the blue phase but how do I even go about approaching
them? They insist that they don't want to change. I suppose breaking lines?
Equalling out syllables in lines? Ooo! Get a thesaurus and change all the
words? (Where would I find one of those for my iPhone?) I'm getting excited
about trying this but that whole folder of them is still screaming "leave us
alone!" LOL!

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 18, 2015, at 16:45, Pagan Tree <3rdeyeonly at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Barbara, Another thing to think about, as if you do not have enough
already, is the many directions rewrites could go. Sometimes I draft
something because a particular line or thought has come to mind. I return to
it at a later time and it goes in a direction I did not originally plan.
Maybe I will again, later, return to original draft and it will go in a
completely different direction.
> In other words, one initial thought could be the basis for creating
multiple pieces, whether poetry or stories.
> It is kind of kin to a series of paintings that follow a theme, a
collection of works. For example Van Gogh's Blue Period. He started with the
idea of 'blue' and it manifested in multiple forms. Your poetry is just as
fluid.
> This does not help with your organization issues, but have fun with it and
go where the wind takes you.
> Eve
> 
>> On Thu, Jun 18, 2015 at 2:06 PM, Barbara HAMMEL via stylist
<stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> See, and the problem falls that I abhor change in my life and that
carries over to my writing. Good idea a copyright dates. I could either call
the new one title (revised) or call the old one title (draft). I like that.
Now I just have to free my mind to do it.
>> Barbara
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>> > On Jun 18, 2015, at 15:42, Lynda Lambert via stylist
<stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> >
>> > OH, I love this, Bill!  - your quote," I've adopted a kind of joyful
>> > bloodymindedness about it all, so there's not even a twinge of pain
>> > about doing this."
>> >
>> > I do this kind of rewriting and editing often, and it's not unusual for
me to work on something for months at a time...after all poetry is a  *craft
* and I have that joyful feeling Bill speaks of when I am CRAFTING my
writing possibilities as I work on them.  I call them *works* for that is
what they are - constructions as WCW would call them.  We create, build,
tear down, build more, and tear into them again and again - until the new
essence is found. It is a great feeling.
>> >
>> > This note from Bill is a keeper - it's all about the growth of the
person as well as the poem. It's about change, and livingness, and fresh
thoughts and ideas. bill, I just loved this post - you reflect my thought on
it.
>> > Barbara, one thing that can be done is to do the copyright with the new
date on the newly revised poem  In my chronology, I will write both dates on
the poem if I still call it by the same title.  I can tell by the copyright
date with is the old one and which is the new one. but, often I revise it so
drastically it gets a new title, too.  Lynda
>> >
>> > -----Original Message----- From: William L Houts via stylist
>> > Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2015 1:27 PM
>> > To: stylist at nfbnet.org
>> > Cc: William L Houts
>> > Subject: Re: [stylist] poem revisions
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > HI Barbara,
>> >
>> > I make a kind of game out of my revisions.  Sometimes, I'll just cruise
>> > through my poetry folder ("Cosmos") and rnandomly give a once over to
>> > one or even several poems; just eyeball them to see how I feel days,
>> > weeks or months after first writing them. Gradually, over time, all of
>> > myh poems get at least minor revisions, and over the long haul they all
>> > get at least two or three overhauls.  I've adopted a kind of joyful
>> > bloodymindedness about it all, so there's not even a twinge of pain
>> > about doing this, and I feel that my poetry in general really does
>> > improve with time.  I used to be very squeamish and protective about my
>> > stuff, and had a real case of the horrors when it came to editing.  But
>> > now I really enjoy the process  and my work in general has, I feel,
>> > improved. My advice is to keep in mind that Word documents (or
>> > Wordperfect or what have you) exist in order to be revised.  It's so
>> > easy to delete, and almost as easy to rewrite, to commit new thoughts
to
>> > the page that there's no reason to sufferthrough the process.  Just
>> > remember that hope springs eternal --and so does poetry.  >grin<
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --Bill
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >> On 6/18/2015 9:36 AM, Barbara HAMMEL via stylist wrote:
>> >>
>> >> I know, for years I've been saying I was going to try revising my
poems. As you know, I have always thought a poem complete and the way it was
meant to be until you fine folks informed me that improvements could be made
on them. But, somehow, I can't bring myself to do it because it would mess
up my extensively organized folders by doing that. My question is, do you
then count a revised poem as a new one? You'll probably tell me it's up to
me what I do but I need help tricking my brain because if I rewrite
something, seems to me it should have a new date. I have actually sorted my
poems into ones I want to work on revising and which are too personal or too
awful or stupid to waste my time improving on.
>> >> Barbara
>> >> Sent from my iPhone
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> >
>> > --
>> >
>> >
>> > "Oh, Sophie!  Whyfore have you eated all de cheeldren?"
>> >
>> >
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