30 November -0001
Edit - The Way of the Biro
I'm doing a lot of editing at present. Some days I'm more in the poem than the day. Not in a Romantic Poet type way, more in a ‘not really paying attention to crossing the road’ type way. I can spend a morning on a semi-colon, an afternoon on a simile, ‘is it more like a bucket or a spider?’
Sometimes I wonder if I’ve edited through two or three passable poems before reaching a place of being happy with the poem I have. Sometimes I wonder if the better poem was four edits earlier. If I'd listened closer I might have heard the scream of brakes. With that in mind here are two snapshots of a current work-in-progress:
Everything Must Go
Accept this. Then what
remains in your home?
Vertical you. The internal
scaffolding of your walls.
A For Sale sign that stands
you up in a cul-de-sac.
Go. You can't leave every-
-one and hold onto the only
place that keeps you
spinning in the world. You
want to go-hide/ go-seek? Don't
you find sleep comes with one
arm hanging over the bed's edge
so your hand stops the floor?
*
Everything Must Go
Accept this. Then what
remains is your word.
Verisimilitude. The internal
scaffolding of your nerve.
Let go. You can't edit every
line and hold onto the sweet
lie that keeps you spinning
in the world. You won't find sleep
with one hand hanging from the edge
and the other holding onto a pen.
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Junior & Young Writers: Week 12 [Wild Words] - Stuff & Things
Junior & Young Writers: Week 11 [Wild Words] - World Building 2
Junior & Young Writers: Week 10 [Wild Words] - World Building
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