"Offer a
positive comment first, then ask questions.
Why did
you use this word here? Why is this line broken at this point? It’s
going to provoke some thought, and it’s more tactful than delivering a report
card. In the end, it is not whether the poem is deeply meaningful to the poet
but whether it will work with a new reader who does not have that attachment.
An editor has to respect the origins but steer comments back to the poem as a poem,
not as a sentimental marker.
However, I
have had too many students simply refuse to tamper with their divine words once
uttered.
Usually,
their feedback to others in a writing workshop shows a lack of depth and
understanding, so there is some symmetry there. Lots of exposure to workshopping
tends to cure that approach, but some people never get over it.
Maybe they
don’t look for editors later in their writing life either, preferring to stick
to their own counsel.
Part of me
says that I will be shown up for the simple tradesman I really am - nothing
inspired here, folks. Why would I want to show anyone the raw and clunky
prototype stuff I have been bolting together in the shed at the bottom of the
yard? Why draw attention to the clatter and the sparks of some crude and
unfinished arc-welding, when eventually I could, instead, slide the sheet off a
polished poem as if it were always such a complete design? On the other hand,
some of that strange preliminary
word work does seem magical to me too. Behind all the considerations
and refinement of line breaks, sounds and the rest, is a part of the brain that
works faster than I can follow. Yes, it may just be the body’s weird
electricity, but I am often astounded at the beauty it can produce.
Magic? Sometimes it seems
like it, and that’s a good feeling."
From
http://iped-editors.org/site/DefaultSite/filesystem/documents/EVANS%20LADD.pdf
