Manuscript pages reduced by that many in two winnowings. Poetry writing is so different than the process of book creation where critical judgment dominates the impulsive moods of the madwoman. In the writing of a poem, I experience complete and almost aggressive freedom. I can go anywhere with my imagination, I can juxtapose any image, I can even make up words.
The crafting/editorial process is putting the reins on the horse and making choices about which trail the poem will take. Then, the final part. Selecting those that make the cut into a "product," a book. I am far less experienced here, and less enamoured of the aspect that has to do with rejection. But, I admire the well-done poetry book: The Blue Iris by Louise Gluck, The Angel of History by Carolyn Forche, Blue Estuaries by Louise Bogan, The Book of Nightmares by Galway Kinnell, Ariel by Sylvia Plath,the books of Raymond Carver.
This is a process I must learn to love, I suppose, if I want to leave my poems in some viable form. A book is a container and the best books are containers with integrity, they hold together well, everything has its place. In such a way, a book is like a poem: holding just the right words in just the right order. Be brave, lassie, be brave!
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