If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.
~Lao Tzu
~Lao Tzu
A poem is alive. Just when you think it is done and you want to say, "Sit. Stay still. Don't move, change, or be anything different than you are right now" it does just the opposite: it dashes off in a new direction. A once great line now seems as stale as cafeteria bread. That powerful theme that so caught your fancy, suddenly seems trivial and self-indulgent. Or maybe one line transforms the whole direction of the poem and you need to rip out and demolish the old guts and start a total rehab. Or maybe you just want to be done because all you are working on is some forgettable assignment with an even more forgettable due date--and I am a soft grader anyhow, especially when it comes to poetry.
The world is full of people who love to say, "Yeah, that's good enough," but they people who are remembered by the world were always ready for the vortex and insecurity of change when and where change was needed. They misread Thoreau when he admonishes us to simplify our lives by eliminating the possibilities of their lives instead of the useless and vacuous parts of their lives. If you want to be a poet get rid of the useless and vacuous and expand and seize the potential of what your words can do and effect and change. If you want to be anything that is beyond the ordinary, then you have to be extraordinary.
Last night I watched some Russian figure skater go out on the ice in obvious pain. He skated around the ice and attempted some leaping twirl of some sort and wrenched his surgically repaired back and could not finish the competition. His pained comment afterwards, spoken in broken English, was simple: "I want the world to know I tried."
Make anything you make better than it was. Make your poem a better poem. Be open to and embrace the change and the possibilities directly in front of you. It will make you a better you.
Leap.
The world is full of people who love to say, "Yeah, that's good enough," but they people who are remembered by the world were always ready for the vortex and insecurity of change when and where change was needed. They misread Thoreau when he admonishes us to simplify our lives by eliminating the possibilities of their lives instead of the useless and vacuous parts of their lives. If you want to be a poet get rid of the useless and vacuous and expand and seize the potential of what your words can do and effect and change. If you want to be anything that is beyond the ordinary, then you have to be extraordinary.
Last night I watched some Russian figure skater go out on the ice in obvious pain. He skated around the ice and attempted some leaping twirl of some sort and wrenched his surgically repaired back and could not finish the competition. His pained comment afterwards, spoken in broken English, was simple: "I want the world to know I tried."
Make anything you make better than it was. Make your poem a better poem. Be open to and embrace the change and the possibilities directly in front of you. It will make you a better you.
Leap.