writing poetry is so flipping hard

[ellajam]

Hi Billy: It is much harder than I thought it would be; calm the inner beast; not for me; I can't tell you how many days that wolf was in my head no matter what else I had to do. As ellajam, I am completely uneducated in writing. Yes, Billy, I like to rhyme; I have intense love of music and the rhyme gives me a rhythm, it's like a different language; making words sing. The rules; meter, dactyls, all that stuff confusing for us new ones, and for me, if it doesn't sound right; the rules don't mean much. Talking about the wolf; I tried to make all the changes that would make it a real poem, I thought I made those changes, mostly, but for sound, and reading I like the original better; for sound; even though I understand the criticism; and that is another dilemma; must we be right to be poetic; or do we have some license here. Good question billy. Loretta

This has happened to me too, editing is a skill I am just learning. Sometimes I need to throw out all the edits and go back to the original and start again, making fewer and more gentle changes. The insight I gained in all those attempts to implement suggestions stays with me; I know my own poem better and can sometimes make better and more subtle choices the second time around.