Ever thought about writing a poem? Why not take the leap?
In a new series, award-winning poet Jessica Traynor shares insights to help you find your voice.
It's a grey Monday morning and last week’s sunny weather is a distant dream. I, like many of you out there, am grappling with a massive to-do list and the temptation to tackle none of it. I know from experience, though, that if I get even a few things ticked off the list, the serotonin boost I’ll experience will be disproportionate to the amount actually achieved. It doesn’t matter – we have to take the small wins.
If editing a poem is your to do list, or even part of your to do list, it’s worth aiming for the small wins. Editing is a tricky thing, the moment where the 'craft’ part of your artistic process comes to bear. Imagine you are trying to carve a beautiful netsuke from a piece of ivory – one of the really complex ones with small moving parts within. Imagine the fine detail on the finished piece, hold the item in your mind in all its intricacy. The temptation might be to focus only on the detail, to panic at how unachievable it seems, and not to think about the simple, individual motions that allow you to layer on detail after detail. You have to work from the inside out.
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A poem is much the same. You might read your own offering, and then become hobbled by the idea that it can’t compare with the intricacy and elegance of other work you’ve read. Comparison is something we all do, and it can help us aspire towards wonderful art, but if it’s causing you shame or holding you back, stop doing it. Go back to the art you have, and the tools you have, and spend some time considering how to use them, one at a time. Editing is a measured and meditative process, and there are many ways to approach it. Read your work aloud. You will hear things you didn’t see on the page. Identify which lines you are proud of, and which ones are not quite working for you. Think about what’s making these lines feel a little unlovely – is it a lack of clarity? Do they sound clunky? Are the metaphors, or similes, or other devices you’ve used a bit forced? Perhaps it’s a combination of these things. Sometimes on trickier lines, we just need to highlight them for ourselves and then mull over them for a while – then spend some time going back to the creative wellspring. If this is the case, don’t rush or force a solution.
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Other issues might be the opening and closing lines of your poem. Commonly, the opening lines can be a kind of scaffolding that allowed you to find your way into the poem’s first draft, but have since become unnecessary. The final lines of the poem can sometimes act like a bow around a package – they tie things up too neatly, and tell us what the poem has worked so hard to show us. I prefer the final lines of a poem to be like a Ryanair landing – we think we’re safely on the tarmac, only to be thrown back into the air.
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Then there’s the clarity of the poem as a whole, which shouldn’t be mistaken for simplicity – have a look at your metaphors and similes. Are they working to reinforce and communicate the most important aspects of the poem, or are they simply slowing our progress through the poem? Are you digressing in places in order to show us beautiful images that bolster the poem’s atmosphere, but serve no other purpose? In all of these cases, try to be honest with yourself. Self-awareness around our writerly foibles is the most important tool in our editing kit. It takes a while to develop, but it can be your greatest companion and helper.
