> So we come to the same issue in what we do. Have we written poems,
> preserved on paper or disk, that nobody will ever see in their present
> state, or that become seed for other poems, because we've judged the
> original to be bad news? How much, for that matter, do we know about the
> compositional practices of earlier writers?
How much do we want to know? I suspect multiple drafts are often a charm to
students (learning to write and/or read). It's certainly the advantage of
going to a University with a library of archival resources - U Texas at
Austin, for example. To be able to see how Zukofsky resources his materials,
transformed and/or mediated them into language, etc. UC San Diego for Olson,
Oppen, Blackburn, Hejinian - etc. etc. I am sure people in other countries
could site similar resources.
A friend, an editor I trust with my work, is currently editing a manuscript
of my new series.Walking Theory. Before I gave him the mss., I reviewed it
and put those little computer cross-out lines through a number of poems
which I thought dismissible. I actually wanted him to take another look.
First he thought I was aesthetizing the poem to make readers work harder to
find out what was going on! I explained. Then he said, "whoa," why are you
taking this or that one out. I like them. Etc.
Finally - unless publisher/editors are being sloppy - the poem is mediated
first by the poet and then a back and forth in a process that includes
giving readings, working with fellow poets in a group, and then with a good
editor. A poem is less "held" by the universe when any or all of these
systems of mediation are not present.. No mid-wife, less likelier the
healthy child qua poem.
I have known 'older' poets to be embarrassed by humbling themselves back
into this process. As if maturity conquers, etc. I suspect it's more often a
case where the 'older' person's work has just come to repeat itself.
The other night - in a related issue - I heard someone say, "When so and so
was young, we were dazzled by the his/her radical technical innovations
which could only be read as 'avant.' When the person grew older, we waited
for a received wisdom - something fused with the technique in which we were
also knocked off our feet by a knowledge or a tone - something more like a
great dinner that gives a shift to every conventional expectation of taste.
A touch of lemon juice & pepper on the sautéed slices of new potato. Sadly,
with this person's work, the expectations were not met.
In terms of reading a poem that really takes me, I will stay first with what
I see on the page (reading it again and again, working out its inner-play).
Then gradually work back and compare with the poem's fellow siblings in the
book - to either re-enforce the experience or make me question my first
'blush'. In terms of going back in the kitchen and looking at a poet's early
drafts, I am not so inclined. I came for dinner!!
Stephen Vince
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