Comments on: The Poet’s Process

By: Annie Jiang

Annie Jiang — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 00:40:10 +0000

My Language Art teacher tell us to chose a poem, and i chose yours because it tell about Chinese, i am a Chinese too!!!

By: Dianne White

Dianne White — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:41:25 +0000

Janet – Both my teacher and writer selves *love* the idea of a book that shows the relationship/transformation between drafts. I look forward to seeing this collection on bookshelves!

By: janet wong

janet wong — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:26:36 +0000

Frances: I remember being incredibly exhausted when I wrote A SUITCASE OF SEAWEED. But the poems in it are some of my favorite (of all my work), so perhaps fatigue makes a poet more honest (at least this poet).

Julie: You are a master of sound, so I really appreciate your praise!

Dianne: I’m working on a collection now where I include two significantly different (yet somhow related) versions of each poem, to show the power of revision. I’m worried that regular trade book publishers will find it boring, so maybe I’ll end up submitting it to an educational publisher.

Uma: You have an open invitation to visit Princeton for my onion soup!

Joyce: Moving from an adult to a child perspective in that poem is, yes, something that I constantly am reminding myself to try to do. Thanks so much for commenting on it!

Thank you, all, for your kind words!

By: Joyce Ray

Joyce Ray — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:01:05 +0000

Janet, thank you for the clear and thoughtful look at process. It’s very interesting to watch your drafts move from a more adult perspective to a true child’s perspective. These examples show that we can start anywhere and through time and honing our words, achieve what we set out to do. I like your comment about reminding yourself that the body of work is more important than one particular poem. That really does give one permission to move forward.

By: Uma Krishnaswami

Uma Krishnaswami — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:43:54 +0000

Janet how lovely to “see” your words here. I love the onion you’re peeling for us here, and the idea that all those different perspectives might lead us to the truths we don’t even know we’re after. Welcome, virtually, to VCFA–maybe one of these years we’ll welcome you to campus in person!

By: Dianne White

Dianne White — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 03:05:59 +0000

Thanks for sharing your revision process, Janet. It’s so instructive! I had to run upstairs to pull out my copy of A SUITCASE OF SEAWEED to read your final, published version again.
I read your discussion of another poem revision on Sylvia Vardell’s blog a while back. It’s nice to get some insight into the how’s and why’s of each revision. THANKS!

By: Julie Larios

Julie Larios — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:03:00 +0000

A lovely look at process, Janet. Thanks! I especially love the advice to come at the poem from different angles – head-on revisions can be intimidating, but playing and imagining new angles – yes! I love the sounds in your final version – that sequence of think,/sparks/rocks/ snack/stick/thin – all of it sounding so much like the snap of twigs and the crackle of a campfire – very subtle. I do believe poetry is about indirection, and coming from different directions at the same poem (sound-wise as well as image-wise) is always exciting, no matter what determination is made about the final viewpoint. Nice to see you here at Hunger Mountain!