Excellent question and I'm quite surprised this hasn't been discussed in detail before -- I guess there are a lot of things we take for granted. When you first start writing, editing is a very difficult process and you often don't have a clue where to start. This is because you don't really know enough about the craft to decide what is and isn't important to your poem, and it's why we always say that it's vital to read as much poetry as you can. Familiarity with the genre is the first and biggest step.
Now, bear in mind that as Sarah said, the poem you end up with may actually be very different from that which you intended to write in the first place. This is not at all unusual. As we write, the idea that gave us the impetus in the first place becomes a springboard to a whole set of possibilities and the process itself brings these out in often unexpected ways. Enjoy what your mind brings forth and encourage yourself to use these strange ideas -- they're usually where the real poetry is. The editing process is about spotting those and then finding a thread that ties your poem together. You really can't do it as a writer, you need to take a step back and become a reader. Look at your poem critically. If you can't make sense of it, even to the point of getting a general mood from it, then it needs some serious work because there's no chance that a reader is going to want to work hard enough to bother if you don't.
Then we come to the next golden rule of poetry: saying the maximum amount in the fewest possible words. That does not mean scraping it back to bare bones and removing all the prepositions etc -- we are not talking about minimalist poetry (though if that's what you want to write, do it carefully and with purpose). Choose the words that give exactly the right shades of meaning. Be discerning. Don't over-modify and pad things out with adjectives -- a string of adjectives is far less effective than exactly the right metaphor. Be active -- don't let your poem languish passively in the mediocre, give it something that makes it shout out and be noticed.
As has often been said, there are no new subjects -- but there are certainly new ways to approach old subjects, and those are the poems that are going to stand out. Every time I read same-poem-different-words about love-and-loss or misery-and-despair, I turn into an automaton. Sure, I can still read it but really, I wonder why I'm bothering. I know how it's going to turn out. I want to be surprised, and so do most readers. Nobody wants to spend their entire life watching new versions of the same movie, and it's exactly the same with poetry.
The most important piece of advice, however, is this: don't take out the "you". Inject yourself into everything you write. I don't mean that every poem should be autobiographical -- of course not, that would be dull -- but every poem should have your own unique flair, something that sets it apart from the generic, something that convinces the reader that you actually care about the subject and about the reader's enjoyment.
Further to this (and thanks for the reminder!) I have stuck a thread called "Why Should I Edit?" in the Novice Forum.
Now, bear in mind that as Sarah said, the poem you end up with may actually be very different from that which you intended to write in the first place. This is not at all unusual. As we write, the idea that gave us the impetus in the first place becomes a springboard to a whole set of possibilities and the process itself brings these out in often unexpected ways. Enjoy what your mind brings forth and encourage yourself to use these strange ideas -- they're usually where the real poetry is. The editing process is about spotting those and then finding a thread that ties your poem together. You really can't do it as a writer, you need to take a step back and become a reader. Look at your poem critically. If you can't make sense of it, even to the point of getting a general mood from it, then it needs some serious work because there's no chance that a reader is going to want to work hard enough to bother if you don't.
Then we come to the next golden rule of poetry: saying the maximum amount in the fewest possible words. That does not mean scraping it back to bare bones and removing all the prepositions etc -- we are not talking about minimalist poetry (though if that's what you want to write, do it carefully and with purpose). Choose the words that give exactly the right shades of meaning. Be discerning. Don't over-modify and pad things out with adjectives -- a string of adjectives is far less effective than exactly the right metaphor. Be active -- don't let your poem languish passively in the mediocre, give it something that makes it shout out and be noticed.
As has often been said, there are no new subjects -- but there are certainly new ways to approach old subjects, and those are the poems that are going to stand out. Every time I read same-poem-different-words about love-and-loss or misery-and-despair, I turn into an automaton. Sure, I can still read it but really, I wonder why I'm bothering. I know how it's going to turn out. I want to be surprised, and so do most readers. Nobody wants to spend their entire life watching new versions of the same movie, and it's exactly the same with poetry.
The most important piece of advice, however, is this: don't take out the "you". Inject yourself into everything you write. I don't mean that every poem should be autobiographical -- of course not, that would be dull -- but every poem should have your own unique flair, something that sets it apart from the generic, something that convinces the reader that you actually care about the subject and about the reader's enjoyment.
Further to this (and thanks for the reminder!) I have stuck a thread called "Why Should I Edit?" in the Novice Forum.
It could be worse