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.
Archive
Storytelling and Escalation or Rising Action
Junior Writers Club Acrostic Poem
Notes on Intention for MAST Collective - Year 3 - Facilitation Focus
Earthquakes & Dominoes - MAST Collective Blog #4
SUPER MARIO AND POP CULTURE POEMS
Receptionists & Inky Voids - MAST Collective Blog #3
Saying No and saying YES on National Poetry Day!
There's a Dragon in the Wardrobe...
House Warming Party (The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known) - MAST Collective Blog #2
Intern Blog 5 - The Publishing Process
POEMS TO SOLVE THE CLIMATE CRISIS
On The Streets With Theresa Lola
Intern Blog 4 - The Internship Journey
NEW DIRECTIONS, STARTING SMALL - THE ORWELL YOUTH PRIZE
LIGHTHOUSES, HOPE AND METAPHORS
on workshop and transformations: frogs, lions, and the duck that becomes a larder...
Poetry Ambassadors - Interview with April Egan
Intern Blog 1 - Finding a Voice
World Poetry Day: Fluffypunk and the Invisible Women
On Being a Writer: A Conversation by Beth Phillips & Sam Morton
Poetry Ambassadors - Interview with Kaycee Hill
UNHEARD VOICES: INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY, AND STORIES OF CONFLICT
