Young Writers Society

Recently I read this article on Writers' Digest on different angles you can take when revising poems. It has definitely made the process of revision more fun for me.

I think revising for me has often been about making a poem feel more satisfying to read, tying up or cutting out loose ends, for instance. So I often turn to regularising the rhythm, cutting and adding lines.

How about you?

I feel the same way! The first draft is never perfect. I usually just leave my freshly written poetry and come back to it after a few days to read it from a fresh perspective and I have to admit, it certainly helps to point out the flaws I didn't notice before, make alterations and improve the poem's quality.
Sometimes however, the poem I write turns out to be extremely personal and even though I'm never satisfied with it's quality, I'm contented to let out my pent up feelings about it and making alterations to it just doesn't feel right. But that's just how I feel!

@Thediffident Leaving the poem for a couple of days is something I do as well!

my poetry revision often doesn't come until months (or honestly, years sometimes) later. Usually I'll open a blank document and the poem in another window, and then rewrite the poem by shifting lines and such around. Sometimes it turns into an entirely new poem, but other times small changes are all that's needed.

Great question to consider gearing up for NaPo - >

Usually I let the poem sit for a while before jumping into revisions and then a very important first step for me is Copy + Pasting it into a new section of where I'm working so that I can work on the "revision" while retaining the "first draft" and can more liberally delete / change / alter without the sense of "I'm losing something here". I don't like deleting things, but if I can visually see that the old copy / first draft is preserved I can almost think of the revision as a new poem. As I work I may continue to save intermittent revisions too.

Then I usually ask myself 1) what is this poem actually saying (ie. what's the main message / story) and 2) is that actually clear from the poem? Getting down to the main message sometimes makes me realize that when writing initially I was going down 5 different tracks at once and in revision I really want to hone in on a central and clear message. This also helps me as I add or take out imagery and lines to make sure they're not just there to be "pretty" but are there to contribute to that meaning. During this stage I may also consider "what am I doing with this poem?" -> because if I'm intending for it to go into one of my chapbook drafts I am going to revise it differently with a different eye for theme / length / format than if I'm trying to just revise it for a one-off poem.

Then I might ask myself if there's anywhere to add more figurative language and if possible I will try to use something already existing there and just expand it rather than add in random things. I really want my poems to be "cohesive" and not just have "pretty stuff" in there for distraction but for substance. And what I mean by expanding already existing imagery is if I have a boat in stanza 1 and am looking for some sort of metaphor to add to stanza two, I should probably look for something aquatic / nautical like anchors, sea, fish, rain rather than something industrial or artistic like gears, turbine, paint, canvas etc. When you let your poem live in a single (or maybe a couple) imagery family(s) that really allows it to be read at different levels and adds better depth.

Then after adding more figurative language I might consider my word choice and formatting. Is there something more creative or impactful that I could do? Does this feel authentic, compelling, and new, or is it over-said, hollow, and dull? If after reflection I feel like the original draft has a "good idea" but the words are ... boring I might start trying to re-write it in a new doc from memory (good way to figure out what your memorable lines are!) or go line by line and physically re-type everything so that I can figure out what is actually decent and what is not - might do some free-writing here.

Finally, I may consider feedback I've gotten from reviewers if there was a common thread of something they liked or disliked and see what can be done about that.

And the last thing I do is try to condense. (And before this stage I'll copy + paste again). I find it much easier to carve away excess when starting with an abundance than to start shaving off words when there's not much there. I also may skip this step altogether if I'm not looking to publish it just to preserve the entirety of the poem's expression albeit possibly with redundancy obscuring the main message.

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My second method for revising poems is to try to re-write them into songs. Usually I find that there are only maybe 2-3 lines that are compelling enough to be a chorus and then making something into a song forces you to condense, pay attention to sound / rhythm, and really only keep the central good parts. Often I find when I do this I almost end up with a whole different poem. I've probably re-written close to 30 of my poems into songs. Sometimes I'll even find that while trying to make a few lines work into a verse through singing them my brain may fill in words that you are missing to make things rhyme.