How do you know when a poem is finished?
I think “finished” is maybe not a helpful target. The field of Writing Studies emphasizes writing “process” versus written “product” (after Donald Murray’s foundational work on the topic), and my experience bears that out. My process could go on probably forever—did I mention my first collection took 20 years to write?!—and the product is kind on artificial “end” point at which an editor or publisher sees fit to memorialize a draft by printing it. Maybe my target is more of a threshold than a finish line. If a poem crosses that threshold, if it takes my breath away and forges a curious path, I think it’s ready to start testing the waters with journals. There’s also a lot of value in making final revisions before sending a poem for publication. Sometimes, that last-minute pressure is a source of inspiration and creative spark. I do some of my best editing as I prepare to attach the draft to a journal submission.
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