I was able to edit a sheaf of pages from the “Brown Journal” into several prose poems that I’m fairly pleased with. It is such an ODD process. I find it very difficult, although today I think I was getting the hang of it.
\n
\nWhat’s involved: <\/p>\n
Transcribing everything into the computer just as it was. This I completed sometime in May or June. <\/p>\n
Pagination. This was Karen Finley’s advice and it really was the most helpful breakthrough. It broke the project down into manageable chunks that I could see on one page, all there at one time.<\/p>\n
Reading the typescript over and over and over again, most of the time making no changes.<\/p>\n
Cutting. I had to leave in some of the squirrely slangy commentary. I felt okay about that after reading a lot of John Ashbery, who does something like that. But there was a lot of side chatter. Today it was a lot more clear what was side chatter and what was “contrasting diction” that helped hold the piece together as a poem.<\/p>\n
Adding repetition. The stuff is sort of repetitive anyway. But occasionally, I had to throw in yet another repetition. <\/p>\n
Reading aloud. I usually don’t read aloud. I can hear the rhythm in my head. But I think I’ll need to read these aloud as revised to be sure I didn’t muck up the original rhythm too much. One of the main things these poems are about is rhythm. <\/p>\n
Poetic encouragement. Gertrude Stein’s writing encouraged me (Tender Buttons). Robert Bly’s emphasis on the leaps and the little explosions (intro to BAP 1999). John Ashbery’s diction. <\/p>\n
A macchiato encouraged me. <\/p>\n
I’ve worked on poetry enough for today. I’d like to apply the revisions to the Word document (these were done by hand), but I think I better save that work for another day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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