Can You Change A Poem?
My belief is that you can't change a poem. The poem is what it is. Can't change it. And if we are lucky we learn this early on. Knowing you can't change a poem makes us better poets.
Don't waste your time trying to change a poem to suit your expectations. Or the expectations of editors. It's a waste of time. You cannot change a poem.
Just think about someone trying to change a poem. A futile act. The poem is rigid. A stone-like structure. It does not give. It screams that hurtful cry that poems make when poked.
What you can do is learn to accept poems for what they are. And we do that by allowing poems to be themselves. Poems we care about, we learn to forgive. Poems that keep irritating us, we learn to distance ourselves from them.
Life is too short. Forgvie a poem for its flaws.
The thing to remember is that no poem is perfect. Love and respect your poem first and the poem will love and respect you in return. Nothing can change a poem. No amount of pleading. No editing. Nothing.
Every poem is on a journey and some are further along the road than others - don't try to hold the poem back.
The poem must be itself.
The process of change can be good, but there's one big thing that many poets have learned. Don't expect the poem to be grateful. If there's something about the poem that rubs you the wrong way early on, there isn't a lot you can do. Pray. Twiddle your thumbs. Give the poem the evil eye.
Hypnotize the poem, till it does your bidding. Barks like a dog. Makes monkey sounds. Is it possible the poem can wake from its stupor? Put on rollerskates and skate off?
You may be able to pick up the dirty socks on the floor that the poem has dropped. Or clip its toenails on the rug. But certain personality traits of a pome are inherent and no amount of cajoling or nagging can change the poem.
Does the refuse to say it's sorry, no matter how wrong it is? Accused of murder, kidnapping, robbery, picking its nose.
Does the poem insist on hanging out with the drunken poems every Friday night? Poets who constantly berate their poets for things they can't change are pitiful.
Facing the fact that your poem may never change can be hard, especially if you have to give up your dream of a happy future together. You can accept the poem the way it is, or better yet find another poem more compatible with your talent, desires and treats you well.
Lots of poems get into a relationship with a poet and the poet tries to change the poem. Either they want to change the way the poem dresses, or the amount of sport it does, or the type of hobbies it has, you name it, the list is never ending. There is always the underlying assumption that as soon the poet enters into a serious relationship with the poem, the poem will relent. The poem will see the errors of its ways. Start doing things differently. Wrong!
The question you have to ask yourself is: do you really like the poem? If you do, you have to learn to accept the poem for the way it is, just as much as it has to accept you for the way you are. Of course sometimes little compromises are needed both ways for things to work out, but there is a limit to the amount of change you can expect and should expect from the poem and vice versa.
If, say, the poem wears one brown shoe and one black shoe. Shall you complain? If the poem's blouse does match its skirt should you point it out?
In life there are the people who fill the ice cube tray and the people who don't. There are people who replace the toilet paper roll and people who leave it for the next one to drip dry or worse. Take out the trash, empty the dishwasher, refill the hand soap bottles, feed the pets, do the laundry, sort and toss the old mail when you have a choice, you do it or don't depending on your inherent nature.
Leave the poem alone. Stop pick on it. You bully.
We are all on our best behavior at first and going the extra mile to make life as perfect as possible for the poem. Over time, we get to those questions and, in even more time, to the real answers. And then about a poem?
And then accept the poem for what it is. Because you will never change the poem. If the poem likes to wear a bowler hat, accept the poem as it is. Understand the poem. Checkered socks, polkadot socks. A poem that eats spaghetti at every meal must be given its freedom. Accept the poem.
Why is it that poets find a poem they like and manage to snare it, they tend to want to change it. And when they don't succeed in changing it, they get upset.
Logic is that if the poet cares a lot for that poem. Something must be attempted. We weep, sniffle, cough on the poem. Though we understand the odds. The poem is in another dimension. It is not there, really. It is from another world.
We cannot change the poem. Though because we care, we have higher expectations for the poem, we faced the timeless dilemma. We get upset. Why is the poem chewing gum? What is it about us that the poem resents?
Of course, the poem may get better by itself. It may see the light and stop eating high fat foods and guzzling Buffalo wings.
But mostly like nothing can disrupt its boorish ways.
For example, your poem may have bad manners.
--It may chew with its mouth full.
--It may not know how to use its napkin.
--Or it may curse too much.
--It may chew its fingernails.
--Spit.
--Leave the toilseat up.
--Snore.
--Burp.
--Your poem may not know how to parallel park.
Know that some poems don't know which way is up. Though they would never acknowledge this.
Does the poem resent change? Its bad habits persist. Smoking, drinking, gambling, adultery, a variety of childish behavior, e.g., know its fascination with the pogostick, the slingshot, climbing trees. What are we to do?
Suggestions, please. How can you change a poem?
