Saturday, July 13, 2019

Revision

Written from a prompt in a class.  Here's what I look for when I revise. And my reply.

I used to be a lightning bolt writer.  The urgency to put pen to paper would be overwhelming, and I'd stop whatever I was doing, grab my notebook and write.  I'd interrupted myself driving, nursing a baby, cooking dinner.  I had to stop myself in order to start - writing.  And whatever it was that pinched me in the tuchus, and got me to write was done...  So was I.  I didn't revise.  Oh, maybe I would change a word or two, correct some punctuation.  But it was never a do-over, or even a do-better.  My piece pretty much remained as it did when my pen inked the paper.

Then I became a more disciplined writer.  A write every day, no matter what kind of writer.  I learned how to carve time out of my day and dedicate myself to this craft.  Devoted myself.  And so much of what I write is crap.  I slowly learned that a gem buried in mud needs the sunshine of revision to gleam.

Now it is freehand, free writing, free-wheeling.  I don't wait to be depressed or grieving to put my emotions into words - on to paper.  More of the mundane has made it to the page. Often my ramblings are a germination, not a culmination.  Until I revise. Perhaps I pluck a line or a stanza that stands out in an otherwise mediocre poem.  Inserting it elsewhere it comes alive, becomes compelling.

Maybe I take out every unneeded word.  This surgical excision allows my voice to be sharp and staccato.  Often I put a piece aside to delay working on it.  Is that procrastination or rumination?  Probably a bit of both.  Then if I have a lightning bolt moment I can retrieve the dormant poem and fan volcanic fire into the ash.  I need to honor those moments and capitalize upon them.  After all they were my initial impetuses for creativity.

Revision.  To go back and edit.  Rephrase, rework.  Thanks to the computer I can save all versions and make sure I didn't overdo the redrafting, or miss something along the way.  The combined gift of time, writer's groups and patience has allowed me the freedom to return to the work.  It is not drudgery.  It is not a necessary evil.  It is a more mature and refined way to approach my writing.

For the past few months , I have had the pleasure of engaging with a cohort.  This lovely lady is a fellow poet, a friend now, that I met at the Poetry Society of Colorado.  We meet, eat, and dissect a few pieces of each others work.  Sometimes I take her editing suggestions, other times I stick to my original wording or punctuation.    This process of one-on-one critiquing has been helpful in ways that a traditional writer's group did not afford me. Groups had me reading way too much of other people's work and the rules for nicety were cloying to me.  Groups also tend to fall apart over time and I like that we are genuinely accountable to each other.  It works well.

I enjoy the process of revision now.  I like to revisit poems from long ago - I have been writing for over 52 years - and give them new breath or a current perspective.  There is a wondrous feeling, a full heart moment, when I can lean back in my chair and say "I wrote that."

Here's a poem written in October of 2017 and recently edited. And there is a line or two I think still needs some work...


Born Under a Water Sign
Written October 2017 - Revised July 2019


Born under a water sign
In a high mountain desert
Destined to spend my life
Seeking an elusive blue

Wide open skies, endless horizon
Blazing orange sunsets over
Snow-dusted peaks
My mouth is perennially parched

This crazy state of water rights
Dryland crops and center-pivot
Lakes are fenced off
Rivers run too fast to swim

Born under a water sign
I am a fish in an ocean
Of tumbleweed and dust

Born under a water sign 
I thirst for relief
The coolness of an aquifer

Born under a water sign
I am resigned to never slake
My desire to drown in the deep





Time to Write,

Jane




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