Edward Fitzgerald springs to mind. He really wrote only one poem that anybody cares about and spent the rest of his poetic life revising it. There are five separate versions of the Rubaiyat, though most people think the first is the best. However, many of the revisions are well worth having.
And then there was Wordsworth's Prelude. He wrote it in 1805 and made not the slightest attempt to publish it for forty-five years. For the rest of his life he revised it and the revised version was published in 1850. I don't know (somebody will) whether he was alive then. Sometimes the revisions are better and sometimes they are worse.
I must admit I wouldn't have the strength of mind to behve as you have, but that doesn'tmean you are wrong. Most of what all of us write will be forgotten, possibly already is.
Not a poet, but isn't it true that Salinger neverstopped writing. He just stopped publishing.
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