How do you know when a poem is finished?
I believe, perhaps rightly or perhaps wrongly, that one of my best strengths as a writer comes from being a close editor of others’ poems through my role at Black Ocean. And so, when I look at my own work, I am able to do so about as dispassionately as possible. There are so many times when I’ve gone back to a poem and cut lines or stanzas that were very emotionally close to me—they may have resonated with a specific moment or a particular sensation when they were written—but in the end, they did not live up to the strength of the poem and could not stay. I don’t want to be overly attached to anything in a poem, so attached it prevents me from seeing clearly whether it belongs there or has earned the right to stay. So, for me, there is usually a moment when I re-read a poem in the revision process and it feels like it was written by someone other than me, yet, someone who has intuited my entire experience. When the poem feels like another me speaking to me with the greatest empathy, then I know, it is finished.
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