dumbfoundry

Guide to putting together a poetry pamphlet [UK]:

3. Sort out good poems that could start a collection and a few that could end the collection as well. Then try linking poems together to form mini-sequences. Then try putting in all the rest and read through what you have. That’s when you can recognise you’ve got (too many) poems that are saying very similar things and some poems which are satires that negate, or ironies that undermine, the more positive poems. The whole collection begins struggling to find its own voice (which is stronger than, and different to, the voice of any individual poem).

The competition winners are usually more like a Concept Album than a Greatest Hits. That’s why you need quite a few more poems than you’ll eventually submit because you may then find you have to drop one or two and (even) include a poem that may not be as brilliantly written as one you’re discarding. Almost every collection has fillers (weaker poems that work as links between the stronger ones) but the smaller the collection the less you should have. Be careful about including a poem you may later regret getting published—you can’t disown it once it’s there alongside your bright and shiny ones! If you’re choosing from far more poems than you’ll eventually need, you have more chance of selecting strong poems. Keep sorting and sifting, checking through, and trying again. The whole process seems like writing a poem in itself.

A reader might think 'Speak for yourself!' all the way through this, but there is a nugget or two here.

This entry was posted by Ivy on Tuesday, November 30, 2004 at 11:32 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.