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So he asked if we
ever mess up on a poem

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or do we try to rewrite
it or do we just scrap it?

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I've scrapped a lot of poems.

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But we were talking, and
there are poems in my book

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that I wish I had done
something differently.

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And so, they're actually
in the book already.

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So, I think it's OK to feel like
you haven't fully succeeded.

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Because I think
you probably never

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like-- you'll write a poem and
you might know that it's done

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or you've gotten as close
as you can to something,

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but you'll never say it exactly.

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Because you're always working
off memory or imagination

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or wonder.

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But, yeah, I think revision is
like, when Eduardo was talking

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about the work, revision is the
most important part of being

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a poet.

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Is being able to one put
the work in, to write it,

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but then to come
back to it and make

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it do all of the things
it's capable of doing if you

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put in the time and effort.

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So to make it the
best that it can be.

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And to not always think, oh,
I wrote that and it's great.

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You know, it's perfect.

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So they just don't
understand it, you know.

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So it is a lot of work.

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And revision is the
most important thing.

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So before you start
scrapping things,

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I would say give them a chance
and keep returning to them.

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Once you becoming engaged
as a poet, as a writer,

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you start revising
seriously, deeply.

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You understand that
sometimes you're

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going have to abandon
some lines, some images,

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some stanzas, a whole poem.

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And just continue
with something new.

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It becomes part of the process.

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Though I must confess, I'm
very loyal to my drafts.

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I should not be very
loyal to my drafts,

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it takes me a long
time to drop a poem.

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But, you know, but it's
part of the process.

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It's part of the process.

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You start feeling less
anxious about oh, I

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got to get rid of a line.

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It's not working here.

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So you do it.

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It hurts sometimes,
but you do it.

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Well thank you guys very
much for your questions

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and your attention.

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[AUDIENCE CLAPPING]

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