Reader, the time has come. Husband tells me he’s disabling the wireless today and moving it over to the Wee, Small House. In theory xfinity will have us up and running over there in a day or two. In theory, the Big G provides city-wide wifi. In practice, who knows when I’ll be back up and running at my desk. So, I bid you farewell for at least few days. Thanks, as always, for reading.
little groups
Last week I wrote about having wide open spaces in the new house — the perfect place for a poem sort. Although I had planned to go over with a tall stack of poems to spread out and wander through, I quickly realized that it would take me the better part of a day to locate, print (when necessary), and organize the actual documents. Instead I wrote titles out on index cards and sorted those. I also put color coded check marks on each card to denote the theme and/or subject matter of each poem. Many cards had several check marks, of course.
The first step after labeling all the cards was to group like with like. So, for example, all the Mail Order Bride Poems went in one little pile, all the motherhood poems in another, all the illness poems in another, etc.
Then I started moving the cards into what poets call an “arc of meaning” — an arrangement that capitalizes on themes and connections throughout the many poems. It may tell a story, or it may evoke a sense of something (emotion, idea), or it may do both. I ended up with four strands of poems weaving in and out of one another.
I learned a lot from my poem sort. While I knew there were plenty of motherhood, illness, and Mail Order Bride poems in my files, I didn’t realize there were several “survival guide” poems, several poems in the tradition of old tales, and several poems having to do with maps/navigation. This gives me some new ideas for how to move forward with what I have so far. It also sent me to the library to do some more reading on themes of survival and navigation (well, I haven’t actually done the reading yet, but I checked out a big stack of books). I also learned that I have more-than-several poems with the word “girl” in the title. So I’m going to be doing some thinking about girls — the concept of girl, the word, etc.
Know what else I learned? I learned that I have too many poems. Too many poems for what, you may ask? Just plain old too many. Too many to keep working on before sending out, etc. So I culled about 30 cards out of the mix — these will go in the abandoned poem file. Not that they were all terrible poems, just that they weren’t as necessary as the rest. That’s kind of a hard decision to make, or was for me — to say goodbye to a poem. But I did it.
All in all I’m very glad I did my poem sort. The next time I do one, the cards will be spread over counters, tables, the living room rug and the hallway. I will be yelling down the hall, DON’T.TOUCH.THOSE.PAPERS! I will be having to move several of the piles so that we can have dinner. No matter, I’m used to it. But it was awesome to work in a wide open space just this once.
And now, Reader, my attention must shift. Moving day is less than two weeks away. I’m taking this week off from writing — or maybe mostly off from writing– and I’ll probably be at the blog a bit less over the next few weeks, too, until we are moved and functional (notice I didn’t say unpacked, just functional) in the new house.
Happy Monday and thanks, as always, for reading.
Ok, are we all here? Welcome to the stanza. There’s not much to see yet, but let me show you around.
And now, for a bit of reassurance (if you need any). One of my readers asked me if I thought the stanza would still be interesting for people who aren’t that into poetry? Would it still have elements of regular life, motherhood, general musings, humor, etc.? The answer is yes. You’ll find the content and tone here to be very similar, if not identical, to what I’ve written at Both Fires over the last several months. I’ll just feel better about my kids’ privacy and sens(es) of self if I put some distance between the posts I wrote when they were little ones and what I’m writing now (for more on this, see the about page).
I’m looking forward to connecting with you and learning from you here at the stanza. Thank you, as always, for reading.
Welcome to the stanza! You have found my soon-to-be new blog. Right now, I am still blogging at Both Fires: mom trying to write, writer raising kids, and I invite you to join the conversation there. Thanks for stopping by and come back soon!
