So he asked if we ever mess up on a poem
or do we try to rewrite it or do we just scrap it?
I've scrapped a lot of poems.
But we were talking, and there are poems in my book
that I wish I had done something differently.
And so, they're actually in the book already.
So, I think it's OK to feel like you haven't fully succeeded.
Because I think you probably never
like-- you'll write a poem and you might know that it's done
or you've gotten as close as you can to something,
but you'll never say it exactly.
Because you're always working off memory or imagination
or wonder.
But, yeah, I think revision is like, when Eduardo was talking
about the work, revision is the most important part of being
a poet.
Is being able to one put the work in, to write it,
but then to come back to it and make
it do all of the things it's capable of doing if you
put in the time and effort.
So to make it the best that it can be.
And to not always think, oh, I wrote that and it's great.
You know, it's perfect.
So they just don't understand it, you know.
So it is a lot of work.
And revision is the most important thing.
So before you start scrapping things,
I would say give them a chance and keep returning to them.
Once you becoming engaged as a poet, as a writer,
you start revising seriously, deeply.
You understand that sometimes you're
going have to abandon some lines, some images,
some stanzas, a whole poem.
And just continue with something new.
It becomes part of the process.
Though I must confess, I'm very loyal to my drafts.
I should not be very loyal to my drafts,
it takes me a long time to drop a poem.
But, you know, but it's part of the process.
It's part of the process.
You start feeling less anxious about oh, I
got to get rid of a line.
It's not working here.
So you do it.
It hurts sometimes, but you do it.
Well thank you guys very much for your questions
and your attention.
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