Knowing when to stop

Write strict forms.

What do you think is wrong with your approach? Is there anything wrong with it?

What isn't working for you?

I like the discipline required to write forms. Not the theory of... that's a bit platonic lol
How does one spell discipline again?

You respect the ability to write forms, but you think it is something to move beyond?

Posolutely absitively.

Each has their pedestal. But imitate, never!

Maybe. But free verse is dying. Of that I am sure and sad.
And form may well teach discipline, but it has limitations which free verse does not.
Hence all we need to discover is a new way to approach the later (FV)...which I'm always playing around with. And getting chastised for.

Patience With Aphrodite

Set solitaire by a lake steeped in mist,
when up she snake with, a Hi, green eyes,

crystal bust, russet minge– like gypsies
on whet castanets. Strung with pearls,

and dealing herself in with hieroglyphic
fingers, he shuffles, lingers, clubs an ace.

In turn she purrs—rolls theurgic dice, coming
to rest on snake eyes— he replies, Hi, I’m Set.

Birth and Genealogy: Like many Greek Goddesses there are contradicting myths about her birth. My personal favourite is the one that describes the Greek Goddess Aphrodite as rising as an adult from sea foam. This was as a result of her father, Cronus, cutting off Uranus's testicals and throwing them into the sea.

Nuts rofl

That last girlfriend of mine complained about always being treated by me as food?

I wonder *smirk*

lis

PS: all this banter has made me famished. Back later. You rock btw.

lostinspace said:

You respect the ability to write forms, but you think it is something to move beyond?

Posolutely absitively.

Each has their pedestal. But imitate, never!

Click to expand...

Not to interrupt the banter, nothing beats good banter, but maybe you just need to make up your own new forms.

Done that Deb.
But most still prefer the classics.
When we cross them, like Ken Borsden does, they seem to lose the plot sts. They become impossible to critique because only the poet knows where the lines of either intersect. We, as reader, on the other hand, have to guess.

Both are equal to me. But free verse needs formal techniques more than formal poetry needs free verse. Otherwise it's just show pony prose IMO

lis

Back to the original topic, I have often felt the same way, that the work never actually gets "finished" because I edit and edit and edit.

I'm not so certain that wouldn't also be the case with strict form...perfecting word choice, getting the most bang for the buck out of each syllable, being certain to use more poetic techniques than only rhyme and rhythm (which are challenges for some of us anyway, but for a form poem to be memorable for me, it needs to employ other poetic magic tricks).

I would behave just as obsessively over a form poem as I would a free form, and because of the additional challenge of sticking to the form, it would require more, not less, editing.

Really though, I don't think the answer is as simple as changing what you write. I think it is about trusting that a piece is done and how you know when. I would tweak mercilessly for a days, then let it rest. I've gone back to some of them now (much much later) and can look at them with fresh eyes.

Perhaps you need to get it to where you are at the "print it out" stage, put it away somewhere out of reach for a week before you are allowed to take a red pen to it again.

Also, i think that kind of editing is definitely a learning process. You are developing your voice when you do it. Don't limit yourself,. let yourself edit; Perhaps you are just the type of poet who takes longer to write the work you want to write. Some of my poetry has gone through dozens of full drafts (not just word choice and punctuation tweaks). some of them just take longer to write than others.

Keep a clean copy of the piece pre-edits. Sometimes we over edit and lose voice and/or other elements of the poem that make it work before we get our big paws on it and in the way.

I quit going to the refrigerator because I'm stuffed, my needs satisfied. Funny thing, hours later I'm back at it. In-other-words, when is a poem ever completely done? I'm always wanting to make changes even after they are published.

Heh...I wanted to edit my novel after it was published. I am a compulsive editor.

And there really is something to the "never done" aspect of poetry, at least for me. I try very hard to move the energy into new work though. If the idea needs that much more exploration, perhaps it needs attention in another poem.

Agree, once published I don't like to read it or I find something I want to change and get mad.

"I know I'm done when I start undoing the edits I've made, when I go back." (Me, about my prose works. I must be less tweaky about my poetry.)