A Writer's Notebook, Day One-Thousand-One-Hundred-And-Eighty-Three

We had our first day of actually workshopping poems today.  My work is on the docket for tomorrow.  I have to admit that I am a bit nervous.  It is not that I don't think the work I passed in is good.  I think it is already fairly solid, but I also feel the need to push it to another level, in some way, though I am not certain what.  It is a sort of persona poem, in which the speaker is a kind of authoritarian voice demanding that the reader remember things as they are being told to do.  It does not describe, in any way, what is being "forgotten," what the new memories are replacing, and their isn't a straightforward turn in the piece.  I think it is effective for what it is doing, but I wonder if it is too simple, if it needs to go farther and do something more.  I think my concern is more about the fact that the class is so short and I have little opportunity to workshop my poetry, so any piece I bring in feels inadequate.  I kind of wish I had picked something more personal or more complex, maybe.  I am not certain.  I think this poem is important, in a way, or could be, but I am wondering how I can push it towards something more than what is present at the moment.  I think their could be a chance to put in more emotional imagery, if I find a way to break the mask of the poem within it, perhaps.  In any case, I am sure that I will get a great deal of valuable feedback, not only from Matthew Olzmann but from the class as a whole.  The poems we looked at today were stunning, and I really appreciated the conversations that arose around them.  It felt very positive, and I know I found myself thinking a great deal about things that I am sure will find their way into my own work as a writer.  If I am honest, I would imagine a part of my concern is that the poem I turned in is working in a different sphere than the work I saw today.  They were far more grounded in biography and were certainly more emotional than the piece I turned in.  I am not certain why that would really be a bad thing, if I think about it, but when have emotional responses ever been logical?

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