Getting Better

A great benefit I get from posting material to the internet is the chance to make it better. Switching from the creative to the editing mode accounts for much of this, of course, as does time away from the project. The brain continues to work on it even when I'm consciously focussing on other things.

Sometimes a poem's up there many months before I print it out to read at some event. That usually involves a pointing up; two really. One before I read, and one after.

Sometimes I even get feedback. Like how bad a poem is. That's a cue to go in and spiff it up.

The biggest contributions to the improvement process are growth and experience. Writing poetry--and lyrics and plays, too--contibutes greatly to my emotional, psychological, and intellectual development. My "head moves" in between readings. I'm a different person--perhaps a touch more aware--the next time I pick something up. Now it looks juvenile; then it looked ready.

I'm also growing as a poet: pursuing different genres, delving into diverse topics, reading other people's stuff. All this makes me a slightly better eye for editing, proofing, and polishing.

Of course there are always those "pieces" (hate that term) that just tumble out exactly as they should be and for all time. To get to those few I must slog through the rest.

Thanks to all for putting up with the chaff.