Poemattic: Poetry and Art for the Soul

We have not had much of a winter season so I started to do my spring cleaning to take advantage of the mild weather. I vowed to get rid all I could that was stored in our attic. We collected quite a bit over the thirteen years we’ve lived here. As usual I begin with great fervor then manage to sit comfortably on a big cushion and before I know it I am reading my old poems. I pay particular attention to the rewrites and the notes I had written in the margins to myself. I look at the dates and relive the moment that may have inspired the poem. Then I start writing again on related or similar themes. Sometimes I simply follow through with some of the edits I had suggested. I never get around to throwing out any of the stuff I had planned to discard.

I suppose many writers do the same thing. But I think poets become reengaged in the process. I started reflecting on how poems evolve and why the ones that end up in an attic or any place for that matter somehow come back to inspire new thoughts. I feel like I have found new treasures. Although sometimes I find one poem I really hated from the beginning and just tear it to shreds.

I will share some of the poems I rediscovered and I hope that you will send me your comments. I hope that you go back into your attic and look for those poems you have written in the past or the new ones that were reborn.