During Kroger's back-to-school sale, when spiral-bound notebooks are ridiculously cheap, I can't seem to resist picking up a couple more to add to my stack. They're perfect for my purpose. I use them as commonplace books. If you like scrapbooking, you'll love assembling your own version. My first drafts of a poem are always in longhand, and I use the front of each notebook for these starts, printing out and pasting subsequent revisions after I switch over to the computer. I am a material girl (sadly, the only similarity Madonna and I share) and I appreciate having something I've made that I can hold in my hands. The back of the notebook is saved for ephemera, for clippings, quotations, photos, cartoons, other poets' poems, anything that I consider inspirational. I often look through these entries for poem-starts. And when the poems run into the ephemera, it's time to begin a new notebook. I use the front cover to list and date the poems within. If my computer ever blows up or the cloud disappears, Luddite that I am, my poems, like Gloria Gaynor, will survive. Below, an amazing poem by Margaret Atwood that gives me the shivers, and a way into a poem. The first of many revisions: From the back of the notebook (I love this cartoon): Mama Wolf tells the boy, "You say 'raised by wolves' like it's a bad thing." The finished notebook with stars for poems ready to send out:
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We tend to write about what we know. I am a writer, thus this blog: Why write? What, when, where to write? Stay tuned. Archives
April 2024
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