Saturday 23 January 2021

Eleonore Schönmaier : part two

How do you know when a poem is finished?

When I can carry a poem in my mind fully memorized with comfort and with pleasure along with tugs of language tension (those ah moments) then I know or hope that the poem is complete.  This happens after first mentally composing the poem and then I rewrite the poem many times by hand.  With each rewrite a subtle small change in the poem occurs. I also recite the poem out loud multiple times. When I'm writing, my thoughts are often beyond my own thinking and it is this beyond that I'm striving towards. I never fully arrive in that beyond but it's the striving that matters.

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