How do you know when a poem is finished?
I handwrite the first drafts of my poems into a notebook. Some leave the notebook faster than others, often depending on how easy I found the drafting process. I then wrestle my poems onto a Word document, focusing first on getting down the language and what I think it needs to say. I’ll often leave poems to ‘marinate’ at this point, before returning, usually a day or so later, to look at form and structure, building the words into something which works. I read poems aloud to get a sense of sound-patterning and rhythm and then I give the language another look. I’m very lucky that my partner, another English Literature graduate, serves as my live-in editor. I wait anxiously whilst he goes through the poem, then we decide on a final edit together – it’s at this point that I feel the poem is finished and ready to be sent out into the world.
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