A Writer's Notebook, Day Eight-Hundred-And--Thirty-Five

I spent a good deal of time today contemplating the ideas I have for a full length manuscript.  I feel that a longer work can allow me an opportunity to teach a reader how to explore the work, offer them opportunities for discovering what has been places before them.  The key is doing so in a way that is enticing and exciting, that is fulfilling to the reader.  In many ways, this is not often the approach I see in poetry books, and I think many poets do not consider this aspect of the work in the ways I am.  In most cases, a book of poetry is either a single work, constructed of poems that are intrinsically linked, or it is a collection of various pieces that may not be connected, other than by authorship.  These approaches are not the total of what exists, of course, but the majority of the books I encounter seem constructed on these lines.  To me, those are fine ways to put a book together.  I have a number of shorter manuscripts that are an assortment of collected work, and I have written larger poetic pieces, for example ny graduate thesis which consisted of a single poem.  The thing right now, though, is that I have a large amount of work to play with, and so my approach is much more open.  For any single poem I choose to include, a number of others will have to be put aside.  As a result of this, I am able to consider things from a certain distance, and with a more exacting goal than just picking work I feel is worthwhile to include.  That is only one part, though it is, obviously, a necessity.  As well, I am open to revising pieces so that they work together, as I am already seeing this as an opportunity 4o refine the work.  In short, I think I am lucky to be able to craft a book that has a more intricate structure but is composed of poems that are not of a single piece, which interconnect but are not a single work.  I have to clarify this for myself, but it is clear to me that it is a challenge I feel ready to take on.