As we're coming to a close on writing our own poetry, we've shifted gears and focused heavily on revision. What strategies work best for revising poetry and how is poetry revision different from revising other forms of writing. I've taken a poem I wrote spur of the moment while thinking about going home for Easter and gone through the revision process to see if it's a poem I want to include in my Self Portrait Anthology.
First Draft
After writing this draft I starting thinking about how line breaks might help add to both the meaning and the musicality of the poem. I consulted Awakening the Heart: Exploring Poetry in Elementary and Middle School by Georgia Heard to figure out how best to include some different line breaks in my poem. Heard describes line breaks as a way to differentiate between the "sound and silence". By adding specific line breaks we can create a tension in our poems that adds to both meaning and musicality. I went through my poem and added line breaks in places where I wanted to highlight the different trees in the yard. Each tree is equally important in its own way and adding line breaks helped to make that distinction.
Second Draft
While adding line breaks I also changed a few words to move from less ordinary language into more poetic language. After the second draft I was pretty satisfied with my poem as a whole. The only thing I wanted to work on was the title. As Heard says, "titles are not just labels slapped on the top of a poem like on cans at the grocery store" (p.86). Titles can add so much meaning to a poem. I experimented with a few titles before I decided on one.
To me, revising poetry is so much less threatening than revising narrative or other forms of writing. Poetry allows me a freedom that I don't necessarily feel with other writing. When revising poetry I feel like I'm putting together a puzzle. I'm taking pieces out and adjusting them so that they are a better fit for the poem as a whole. I tinker with words and structure until the poem feels right to me. I'm not as concerned about how other will perceive it because I didn't write this poem for anyone else. I wrote this poem for me.
Your poem turned out great! I have really enjoyed reading your poems this semester. Choosing title revision as a method of revision is awesome. Just as Georgia Heard says, it is so important to the piece. However, I think we sometimes forget that.
I really enjoyed reading about your revision process. I considered line breaks as well, and I think they can really change the meaning of a poem. I think you made a great decision in giving each part of your garden its own stanza. To me, it adds to the grandness of your family's garden!
I really liked how you mentioned line breaks as a form of revision. I think adding in the breaks between stanzas really elevated the second draft of your poem! When it was all together as one long piece I saw the yard more as just a yard full of trees, but when you focused on line breaks I really saw how each individual tree in the yard added to the whole picture in a unique and individual way. Awesome poem!