After a second night of uncomfortably hot not-so-much-sleeping, today got off to a pretty great start. I worked my first shift in the kitchen — helping to set up/serve/clean up breakfast, and prepping the salad bar stuff for lunch. I have to say that it felt good to be doing something with my hands (besides typing). Not saying I’d want to do it EVERY morning starting at 6:45, but rather, it was nice to start this particular day having actually accomplished something tangible/useful. Plus, it was a bonus to have to occasionally walk into the fridge to get various things. I lingered more than once. I may sleep in there tonight.
This afternoon, spurred, no doubt, by slicing cucumbers and making coffee, I have been working on poem edits, with some satisfying results. A quandry, though — I am revising poems which I posted, in earlier draft form, here on this blog. It took a lot for me to post those early versions in such a public forum — but I talked myself into it. Especially for April’s “poem a day” challenge, I thought going public would be a motivator, and I was correct. But part of my plan for THIS month involves returning to many of those poems, as well as others I may have posted in the spirit of the blog. (The “spirit of the blog” being, apparently, “prematurely publish drafts which don’t actually merit the bandwidth yet! because you can!”) I was just doing some further tinkering with “Compliance,” for instance. And I was thinking, oh, maybe I’ll put a new draft up here. But there’s still that old draft. It’s not a massively different draft. But suddenly it’s looking….like the OLD draft. Suddenly I’m feeling shy and self-conscious. (Tip for shy and self-conscious people: don’t. start. a. blog.) So, okay, I guess no fair complaining about feeling like I revealed too much of my precious and mysterious and profoundly idiosyncratic artistic process here. (And again, because I love parentheses: does it really matter when, like, three people look at this blog with anything resembling regularity?) Gah. Maybe I’ll post some poems. Maybe less of this bloghorrea. Keep old drafts up? Delete them as I post newer ones? Quit posting poems in favor of thrilling you with this minute by minute accounting of the stupid things I think about AS I AM THINKING ABOUT THEM? Stay tuned.
All I really logged on to say was that I’ve worked on several poems this afternoon, and it feels good. Even though my hair hasn’t been fully dry since July 3.
Liz Ahl 
I think it would be very interesting to read the next drafts of previously posted poems. If you link back to the original post it would make for easy comparision reading(multiple browser tabs and all). Perhaps some authors notes about the changes you’ve made (in parenthesis) would guide the readers through the process.
Blog on! 🙂
Love the meta blog and can’t wait to see new drafts. Blog on Macduff! And keep popping into the fridge from time to time to keep your spirits from flagging. You are amazng!
oooh! I’m number 3!
Hi Liz!
I love that you reveal your creative process! One thing to consider…although you probably already know…if you publish a poem on your blog it is now considered published. I have found this frustrating. Most of the journals I submit to will not accept work that has been posted to the web at all!
Just something to think about 🙂
Happy Thursday!
Ivy
Interesting, Ivy — I’d be curious to hear from others (their experiences/opinions) on this, as I have heard that, unless it’s a juried blog (an edited blog, a promoted space/online journal with a demonstrable readership) then most journals/editors don’t care whether a poem (or version of it) has been posted online. I assume OVS won’t accept work that has appeared on the Web? Am I being too old school, assuming that it matters whether something has been juried/peer reviewed by an editor/editorial board?
I’m just catching up on your several weeks of blog posts. I thought you’d want to know that google put a cat food ad on this entry. I’m sure they have very sophisticated ways of knowing what kinds of ads to post on which blogs. Meow.