I learned something from writing a poem: Editing poetry is tricky.

First, the poem.

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“A shade darker”

The last year is tinged with regret, sadness, loss.

It colors my memories, like sepia tints a photograph.

 

In moments, I have to go back,

Probably to late fall, to get a clearer picture.

I like to say I have no regrets,

But that’s not true.

Sadness is a given.

Loss was my choice.

 

All this time will be a different hue,

A shade darker, deeper than truth.

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Poetry was never my strong suit. But occasionally, something comes out that sounds more like poetry than what passes as prose for me.

This poem came pretty much unbidden as I was falling asleep one night. I woke up the next morning, and there it was, still waiting for me to write it down.

I tweaked it a little. Maybe I should have tweaked it more, right? I started to, but then it started to throw other parts off, so I decided to leave it (mostly).

Why editing poetry is a challenge

It’s much easier to edit blogs, columns and articles. There’s more there to work with. You’re not as worried about the “sound” of it.

The same might not be true for poetry. If you change even a word, it can alter the whole meaning or feeling of the poem.

Usually, as a writer or editor, you’re trying to convey information, and you want it to be readable and easily understood. It’s OK to break up longer sentences and ideas. You can remove words and not lose the meaning – in fact, this often will improve the readability. An editor will tighten, get rid of fluff and distill it. (I just edited four words out of the preceding sentence to do just that.)

Now, that I’ve said that, I want to edit my poem for newspaper publication, since that’s where I have the greatest experience editing copy.

“2018 is a sad year. Memories of it are sepia-tone. I have to remember fall of 2017 for a clear picture. I have regrets, am sad and chose loss. 2018 will be darker than reality.”

It loses something, doesn’t it? Journalism editing works better for news stories, blogs, columns and the like.

If I were going to write more poetry, I’d look into editing it, too. But I don’t expect more poetry to spring forth. Maybe, like this one, it will bubble up occasionally. Maybe I’ll write it down, and maybe I won’t. You never know what I’ll do, do you?