Sunday, January 23, 2011

Wash, rinse; repeat






I wonder if I should put it up on my dashboard somewhere...

'GOOD POETRY IS TAKEN DOWN AFTER A FEW DAYS'

Only serious pieces that could grab attention anyway...

Because I notice a few people come over now and then and leave comments. I am in serious edits and re-writes on my first book of work, so I test a few out. Also another book in the works with my poet friend Pasquale Varallo.

We spent the afternoon going through files and emails of stuff we have sent back and forth. He has much more sitting in files than I do. He is 80, and been writing for more than ten years strong. Me, I only began to go back to the works from ten years back (I read in the eighties to nineties), and some of it stinks. Some is fine left alone, but I have less than most of you writers and poets who have been at it for years.

My commitments laid else where. Sick kid for fourteen years. Phew, do I have my work cut out.

Did I mention working with a conservative (navy carouser at his best) who is eighty has its challenges? His beliefs change from moment to moment, I have to stand my ground, and listen. Hmmm...

Thanks to all of you who give encouragement. My audience also tells me what works and doesn't on paper or in reading. Funny how that works...

hugs,

Elizabeth

PS- The photo above is a prompt pic I used from T, a former and fellow, This Town Blogger Photography group I was part of the past year...I have not taken as much pictures as I usually do, but will pic it up again, since I have been noticing such oddities in the snow the past few days.

9 comments:

T said...

Hey, I recognize that photo! Seems like a very long time ago that I took that pic.

I'm sure many of us enjoy your poetry, I know I do - I just don't always leave a comment.

farmlady said...

Keep writing. Read the comments and criticism but be true to yourself.

Toon said...

Writers are always editing -- even when we're not writing!

Chef E said...

Yay T is back! I miss your photography and come over now and then. I also was looking at the poem I wrote for this, and am thinking of using it for a haiga, which Jim K.'s friend Pris Campbell has taught me so much about! Pearl also is a great lover and writer of haiku...

Jessie Carty said...

It cracked me up when you said "good poetry is removed" but do we ever know what is good or not!

I just had a poem accepted that I had pulled from my sending out list. Guess it was better than I thought :)

Chef E said...

Guilty! Jessie- I type before I re-read what I write, and I figure I wrote it, then it must be good, so maybe I should have said 'Better Poetry Is Removed' LOL Guilty!

I took a drive today to help get inspired out of my stale environment, in spite I was gone all day yesterday, but whom ever said taking a drive helps break of writers block was right! However I forgot my camera darn darn darn!

Jim K. said...

I hear you and feel it.

Lao-Tzu said
"the journey of 1000 miles begins
at one's feet"
He didn't mean 'get walking' so
much as , "don't look at the
horizon and freak...just get
into where you are..that's
enough".

Be meticulous, but have fun :-)

Pearl said...

good to have an ideal reader at hand, even if he's fickle.

yes, it takes a while. made my first chapbook 25 years ago. its a process of throwing out and moving on. it's the writing ongoing, the processing, thinking, building skills of mind and poetic device, the considering, not the exact product of any given now.

Bryan Borland said...

I'm just curious, is that work-in-progress going to start making the rounds to publishers soon? A certain publishing house begins looking at manuscripts again in March... and - you know - I know a guy who is running a poetry showcase (which includes unpublished manuscripts), and though it is for LGBT writers, I mean - if anyone qualifies as a gay man, it's you. :) Since I know the guy running it... I'm SURE I could sneak you in.