Lisa Young

Poetry editing is such a huge topic that I’ve been procrastinating writing about it. Where to begin? What to cover? Well, let’s start with a poem I’m editing that has some ants in it. Editing Session to Figure Out What to Do with the Ants: Usually, when I come across a poem that includes ants, I think, oh no, not ants again. The writer was sitting in the grass and saw ants and had nothing else to write about, so the ants got in there. Plus, ants are such a cliché  —  we're like them: small, exposed to all kinds of twisted fates. Find Poems that Cover Your Subject Matter What I like about the poem  —   Failing in the Presence of Ants   —  is that it does the unexpected  —  it reveres the ants  —  not to mention it’s just well written  —  and if something’s working, whether it’s about ants or not, it doesn’t really matter  —  all is forgiven. Finding poems that cover your...

Last Friday the Moosemeat writers descended upon the Arts & Letters Club for our annual chapbook launch. Note to organizers: if you want a great event  –  do it at the Arts & Letters Club! You have to experience it to believe it. I was mesmerized by the readings...then I was off to a poetry weekend up north the very next morning. At one of our afternoon workshops, one of my friends who rarely writes poetry, asked me why we edit poems. She wanted to know because she felt that in the moment of writing she was expressing something  –  whereas when she went to edit  –  it felt like manipulation - a kind of false tinkering with the original intent. A great discussion ensued among all of us at this point. Everyone had a different idea about the editing process. A few people spoke about how they had ruined their poems by editing. I've done it myself and seen others ruin their work too. As you weed out all the "mistakes," you can sometimes pull the poem...