A Writer's Notebook, Day Eight-Hundred-And--Forty-Four

 I had a very productive discussion with Freesia McKee today, focusing on the work for the new collection.  Freesia has some work she selected for us in order to begin the process of organizing the book, and we looked through some of those poems in order to see what we might discover.  I think that one of the most significant things we determined had to do with recognizing certain poetic modes that I often employ.  It is hard to explain the specifics of what I am describing, but I have many poems that use similar imagistic systems, or which are built upon a certain type of juxtaposition.  As a general example, I have written a number of poems in which an abstraction, such as silence, is personified.  These poems also share a certain tone and approach, not only the basic premise.  I also have a great many animal fables (though I am not as certain about how I might include these in this book.  I do have some ideas, but it is a matter of seeing what else is to be included), which also share similar qualities between them.  Their are many other examples of this in my work.  As is inevitable for any artist, I have obsessions.

In terms of the collection I want to develop, I see these various poetic streams as offering different elements that can be used to guide the reader's experience by providing elements for the structure of the work as a whole.  I can imagine placing poems in a way that allows these different modes to create patterns between the different sections I am conceiving, and providing patterns for the reader.  These kinds of elements can become a foundation principle in crafting the work overall.

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