Poetry in Process

I write poetry and prose. However, I can more easily track the process of my poetry, as I write a lot of it physically (with pen and paper) as opposed to prose, which I prefer typing up.

I like to start with a stark image of some sort and build from there. I never give up on a poem, even if it ends up being completely different than when it started, so I spend a lot of my process in editing. The only time I don't heavily edit is when I do stream of consciousness writing.

I build into new images, new "plot", etc. I don't always intend to end a poem in a certain way, most of the time it just goes on its own.

Here is the process of a poem I've recently written, as shown in my writing notebook:

What you see is how I edit and cut stanzas while writing nonlinearly-- the first stanza turns into the fifth, for example. This poem begins with the image of a garden beside a lake, filled with secret rot. I move from there to form a sort of disjointed narrative. Nothing is really in any order, but they are in their places in the poem. (You can also see a title that I moved onto another poem.)

Lastly, I type this up, generally finishing editing word choice and structure as I transfer it into Word. And then there's a poem-- whether good or bad, I officially have something to work with.

--1/2 Editor in Chief, Ivy Jones (ivk)