Tag Archives: Byline

A Question of Revision

aztec-gold-calendar-zlota-moneta-aztekow-piekna-3018883770

I find that I do not usually do as much revision in my poetry as in my prose. Part of this is that by definition, even my longest poems are not nearly as long as my prose; the fewer words, the less that can go wrong. But more likely, I think, it is that poems tend to have what Edgar Allan Poe called “unity of effect, ” the idea that all the elements of a poem or short story are working toward the precise effect that you want to have on the reader. He believed that longer works made this sort of unity of effect impossible because you would put the book down. Short forms can be read in a single sitting, so you can capture and captivate your reader better with them. So along with that, I think of what the poet Nancy Willard said when I went to the Bread Loaf Writers Conference many years ago: “Writing is like baking bread. You can smell when it’s done.”

I was thinking about this when I came across another old poem, this one a meditation on how I revised yet another poem, Notes from the Coin Laundry, which was about the little laundromat I went to when I lived in Japan. Some sparrows had nested in the awning above the entry and they would often fly in circles for their own amusement and mine. Circles, cycles, the pull of time down the ages, physical circles mimicking mental circles… I find myself fascinated to see the connections my mind comes up with, especially when I ask myself questions rather than trying to give answers.

…

A Question of Revision

…

Is the point the spinning laundry

Or the wheeling sparrows or the sun

Caught in my blue eye just

As it ends its arching ascent—

…

Is it? Are these perfect circles

In their orbits the center of the poem?

Is the poem a golden disc, a calendar

Molded by men who cut out beating

Hearts to offer gods? What day is it?

…

What year is it? And how high

Must I climb to make the sacrifice?

Which words will stand solid under

My feet to take me upward?

…

Somehow I must cut the heart out

Of this beating poem, the laundry

And the sparrows, circling the center.

Somehow I must enter the spin and offer

You, O gentle reader, the sun.

…

Spilecki, Susan. “A Question of Revision.” Byline Nov 1997: 19.

A Good Poem for a Day Off

conservatory_venetian1blinds

Recently, I was looking at old contributor copies of magazines and came across a little poem I still quite like. That is a nice feeling, and I know I use this phrase a lot, but it really is like coming across an old friend by surprise. And why is it that those early morning inspirations always happen on the days you did not have to get out of bed early?

Waking Early

…

You will learn to write legibly

in your sleep, in the charcoal

gold light filtering through

your blinds, letting you see

a page like a window lit

by a parking lot. You will lie

there, you will tap sleepy

fingers over the floor to read

where your pen has rolled, over

the page to see what it has

to tell you. Your empty hand paces

like a guide dog to keep you

moving in straight lines. Each letter,

each word, you must know

by feel: the T like cheekbones,

the O like lips. You will teach

yourself the alphabet’s mnemonics,

learn to read aloud with your hands.

…

Spilecki, Susan. “Waking Early.” Byline June 1999: 18.

List Poems

Recently, one of my colleagues blogged about making lists, reminding me of some poems I wrote based on the list genre. A list is a funny thing, usually parallel in structure. Items on grocery lists tend to be nouns, things to buy. Items on To Do lists tend to be verbs, tasks to accomplish. Because we all make lists, as readers we read list poems with a particular kind of attention because we recognize the list as something we might have written.

This is a poem I actually remember writing almost fifteen years ago, back when the Writing Center at MIT was close to the Charles River and we had windows through which to see it.

How to Get a Poem without Spending Much Money

  1. Marry someone who has a poem.
  2. Win a poem in a poker game.
  3. Buy shares in a poem with a group of people.
  4. Get an old poem and fix it up.
  5. Make friends with someone who owns a poem, and get invited to use theirs.
  6. Rent a poem.
  7. Trade the use of a poem for something you have (computer, lawn mower, pickup truck)
  8. Pluck a poem from your neighbor’s garden.
  9. Don’t get caught.

Spilecki, Susan. “How to Get a Poem without Spending Much Money.” Byline. (Oct. 2001) 248: 19.