Think carefully about that word — re-vision. When you set out to revise a piece, if you open yourself to what the piece is trying to say to you, the process becomes about so much more than what Natalie Goldberg calls “pencil work.” Get past the pencil work and let your revising process become one of re-visioning.
In their book The Poet’s Companion, poets Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux do us the solid of reprinting poet Jane Hirshfield’s list of Possible Questions to Ask of Your Poem in Revision. Notice that Hirshfield doesn’t suggest you ask yourself these questions. Ask your poem. And when your poem answers, your job as the poet is to LISTEN.
What follows is an excerpt of the worksheet Hirshfield handed out to her students at the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference.
What is being said?
Is there joy, depth, muscle in the music of its saying?
Does it want a more deeply living body of sound?
Does it follow its own deepest impulses, not necessarily the initial idea?
Are there things in it that don’t belong? Are there things in it that are confusing, clichéd or sentimental?
Does it go deep enough, far enough?
Does it allow strangeness?
Should it go out into the world?
Minerva Rising’s Executive Editor Kim Brown led an informative webinar* last night titled, “Taking Your Writing to the Next Level.” Sage woman that she is, her one-hour free talk was full of nitty-gritty nuts-n-bolts helpful advice about getting your writing car in gear and revving it up on the fiction freeway. She counseled, When you’re reading books on craft, don’t just scan over the writing exercises. You have to actually DO them! How did Kim know that I am guilty of doing just that? If you too have been known to take the same shortcuts, remember, you are only cheating yourself. So right now, you! Yes, you there in your comfy blue sweatshirt with that cup of lukewarm tea. And you! Over there with the pencil stuck in her twisted bun of hair, cat in the windowsill, stack of unfinished poems on the side of your desk. And you! I see you trying to hide behind your cubicle, reading this on your lunch break on your tiny cell phone screen. All of you have poems that need re-VISION-ing. You have already taken the time to read this post. So take your commitment to your writing one step further and apply the questions above to a poem that needs some work.
And if, after you’ve revised and revised and revised, the answer to that last question is Yes, then you should submit it to Minerva Rising!
