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  #21  
Unread 09-27-2015, 11:33 AM
Michael Juster Michael Juster is offline
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I trash about 95% of it, but that's probably why my last book of original poetry came out in 2003.
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  #22  
Unread 09-27-2015, 11:47 AM
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John Whitworth John Whitworth is offline
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I have a book called 'The Poet's Craft' by A.F. Scott, CUP 1957 which I have found very useful about this. I'm sure I have mentioned it before but some of you may not have heard me.
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  #23  
Unread 09-27-2015, 12:05 PM
Orwn Acra Orwn Acra is offline
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I throw nothing away because everything I write or think or do or say is perfect.
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  #24  
Unread 09-27-2015, 12:21 PM
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Maryann Corbett Maryann Corbett is offline
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These days I throw most things out before a word makes it to the page. Unfortunately, that doesn't improve the quality of the things that do get that far.
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  #25  
Unread 09-27-2015, 01:04 PM
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Andrew Mandelbaum Andrew Mandelbaum is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Orwn Acra View Post
I throw nothing away because everything I write or think or do or say is perfect.

Hey! I use that same method. It makes my work great.
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  #26  
Unread 09-27-2015, 01:04 PM
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Michael F Michael F is offline
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Maryann, you know Jarrell’s metaphor about poets standing out in thunderstorms? I've always loved it and thought it true.

Wintaka, LOL! Well played.
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  #27  
Unread 09-27-2015, 01:15 PM
Julie Steiner Julie Steiner is offline
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[Trashed]....

Last edited by Julie Steiner; 09-27-2015 at 07:51 PM. Reason: Hypocrisy
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  #28  
Unread 09-27-2015, 05:50 PM
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W.F. Lantry W.F. Lantry is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Orwn Acra View Post
I throw nothing away because everything I write or think or do or say is perfect.
Nothing of what I write is perfect. When was that ever a thing? The best is the enemy of the good.

That said, I try to make it good enough the first time around. Zeno's arrow is real, and it's pointless trying to walk in the same path twice. I know I'm going to lose the emotion as soon as I click save, and I'm going to lose control of the poem as well. Everything gets sent out within minutes of being finished.
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  #29  
Unread 09-27-2015, 10:18 PM
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John Whitworth John Whitworth is offline
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Ah, Bill, but as Valery said, a poem is never finished. It is only abandoned. Even publication makes no difference. Do you remember Macbeth saying:

Before my body I throw my warlike shield?

My English tyeacher insisted that 'warlike' was no good (all shields are warlike) and what he really wrote was:

Before my body I hrow my warlock shield.

Meaning of course that he was under the protection of the witches.

That seems t me entirely convincing. Even after Shakespeare's death the line was not finished, only abandoned.

Shakespeare is mortal, even as you or I, but his poetry was not for an age, but for all time. and so is some of yours and, I hope, some of mine. Mark Alexander Boyd is a Scots poet, all of whose work has been lost except a single perfect sonnet (look it up). That could happen to us. One poem! Which would it be?

So don't go throwing stuff away.

Last edited by John Whitworth; 09-27-2015 at 10:23 PM.
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  #30  
Unread 09-27-2015, 11:01 PM
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R. S. Gwynn R. S. Gwynn is offline
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John has a foul rag and boneyard in his garden, I'll bet.
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