This is my fifth year posting a poem per day during April
for National Poetry Writing Month.
I must qualify my participation; I am bringing forth poems already written but never posted publicly.
Once I believed that creative souls produce their most authentic work in a frenzy of inspiration. This is the modern myth of the Artist as oracle or prophet; a being so special she/he just has to get it out there in one inspired spasm. To alter or to edit the art is to make it less authentic; it is spasmodically delivered in finished form (rather like vomiting or excretion). But as I matured poetically and reconsidered things I moved away from this model. I realized that stream-of-consciousness dribbles, spurts, rants and visionary diatribes make for boring art. A different approach to poetry stresses craftsmanship, structure, and goes against the model of Artist as mystically-inspired Other. It is also message-oriented. I represent this second tendency.
I am not writing one-a-day for April in response to prompts. These are drafts I have been saving for National Poetry Month. I have been reworking, polishing, and finishing these poems for my readers. They have been faithfully and obsessively crafted.
And remember:
When you own the POETRY
the POETRY owns YOU !
CONNECT/HOOK 
It baffles me a little that we are still so entrenched in the idea of the Romantic genius, completely oblivious to the fact that even the Romantic genius carefully crafted and edited that which, as Wordsworth would have it, was a “spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling” but an “emotion recollected in tranquility.” In other words, write drunk, edit sober. You certainly need not justify your participation: you write elegantly and beautifully, careful of every word — and is that not what matters most, placating the muse, serving her genius rather than bullying her into serving us?
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I just now read this commentary (days late) ☺
Sorry to have missed it at first . . .
Excellent thoughts. Thank you for your poetic insights, Anna.
“Write drunk, edit sober” ha ha, yes!
That nails both of Wordsworth’s counsels in one easy phrase. I am glad to have a reader such as you.
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Well, I am glad to be reading you! It is always thought-provoking, and that, at least in my book, is an entirely good thing.
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The muse is a strange thing, During long periods throughout the day, I tried to follow the prompt (which for once, this year, I decided would be my goal) and got two lines down. Then I rattled the rest off in about fifteen minutes after supper.
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The first and only NaPo prompt I ever followed was this year: the list of Rock-group names thingee about a week ago.
It would probably push me towards innovation if I took the prompts more seriously, but I enjoy staying stuck in my poetic rut, from whence I rail and rant.
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