Chapter 12 begins with a rather untypical sentence for a book that stresses creativity I guess. It is a quote in which J. D. McClatchy states that “A writer’s life is lived not in bed or on the road but at the desk.” Actually, I do not agree with this statement at all. Of course, a desk is an important place to arrange one’s thoughts. However, I think a poet can only write about things he sees or that he has experienced. So how can a desk be more inspiring than being on the road and watching his surrounding?
However, this chapter offers some useful tips how to finish one’s own drafts. One passage entitled “Writing Communities” emphasizes that the same poem “that seems great today can seem dumb tomorrow and wonderful again the day after”. That is way the author suggests letting other people read the poem since oneself is too involved in his own work so that one is rather unable to read it objectively anymore.
In the following sub-chapter the author provides some proposals how to get organized with his own works. It includes such basic ideas as “use a system of manila folders […] labeled NEW (,) […] FINISHED (,) NOTES” (,) “OLD MSS” (,) and “PUBLISHED”. Furthermore, it provides some clues where to send a finished poem (I’m wondering if a poem can ever be finished?).
Basically, this chapter offers detailed information what one has to consider when he sends a poem to a Magazine.
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