In my apron

Poppy field by van Gogh, 1890. Image credit

I will not let this snow cover

of violence deaden my world

into breathless radio silence.

I will not let sandpaper words,

the hard, wind-tossed hearts of vandals,

swamp out the daisies and poppies

when and where it’s spring. I’ll let drifts

of leaves fall wherever they want,

weave against this doorsill in autumn.

I’ll pluck huge bouquets of hope,

keep them massed in my apron

like secret talismans. From the red

wildfires of poppies I’ll pick them,

and from the red, dead leaf banks.

I’ll walk miles of cheerful wildflowers

and the sky’ll sew its own linings

overhead in gold and silvershine.

And the sharp-spiralled razor wires

won’t stop a single leaf. Or stop me

from holding the flaming bunches

in the crook of my torn elbows.

***

In praise of some violence

The concept of non-violence doesn't work everywhere. 

Strangely, I had the same discussion recently on two separate occasions, with two different writerly friends, one face to face and the other over email. The debate centred around 'pouring one's heart out' poetry - if it needs to follow rules of grammar or even rules of poetry. It's all about freedom and being raw, spontaneous, right?

Um...no! Not much good making one grand poetic statement in wrong grammar and having people roll around laughing and/or stand there stupefied trying to figure out what it all means. Or a typo marring the exquisite retrousse nose of that metaphor no-one else in the history of poetry has dreamt up! No. Just no. It's the emotion that should be raw if that's what the poet wants, not the writing. No shortcuts possible. That's my view at any rate. What's yours?

Those chats got me thinking - I often say here and elsewhere that I want to 'write it as it comes' - cripes! Probably give the impression I don't think much of editing (reinforced by the wordcounts at my A-Z too)! No, on the contrary, I'm not an advocate of 'raw' writing anywhere (except maybe journal entries meant for the writer's eyes alone). Errors of any kind undermine the final effect. For the want of a nail the battle is lost. 

And poetry needs as much ruthless editing as prose, no mistake.  Is this line/word really necessary? No? Chop! Does the rhyme work? No? Change! Aargh, now this is no longer ten/fourteen/twenty lines - cross out the whole ghastly mess and start all over again! 

A violent pen is super-essential for producing an acceptable outcome.

Write it as it comes, by all means. But then put away, revisit, edit, edit, edit, and then, if it looks and smells okay still...go hit publish.