Sturgeon's Law

I just got e-mail notification that my poem "The Bait-Cutters" has been accepted by Cranky. This lovely young journal out of Washington publishes strong work, and its most recent issue contained a poem by Jeannine, whom I seem to be following around in journals.

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Congratulations to Sandra McNew, a member of my alternating-Thursdays local workshop, who just won the Columbine Poets of Colorado statewide first-book chapbook contest. Of course, I was among the people she beat, so here's a little foot-stomp too.

I was thinking about my writing, and I decided my poems go through the following stages:

1. Handwritten scribble in my notebook or on another convenient piece of paper. The sparking idea, phrase, metaphor, or whatever.
   
2. The word-processor work-in-progress, with whole poem passages but also notes and outlining, definitely not recognizable as a whole poem yet, even if I print it out.
3. The printed draft, which is recognizable as a whole poem but usually not any good yet. What I mark up and revise to make into a decent poem. This is the first stage that I'll show anyone, and even then only the most trusted.
4. The finished draft, which still needs work but which I'm not ashamed to show to a workshop or my interested friends. I will still be focused on polishing this stage.
5. Allegedly finished, which I might put in a manuscript or send to a journal, but which I'm still most likely going to change in the future.
   

I ran a concordance application on my manuscript (all the poems I consider decent enough to put in a book) to see what words I use a lot. Here's my top 10:

Rank, word, uses, percentage

1 The 453 5.6653 %
2 a 270 3.3767 %
3 and 223 2.7889 %
4 of 169 2.1136 %
5 in 135 1.6883 %
6 to 120 1.5008 %
7 You 110 1.3757 %
8 I 88 1.1006 %
9 your 81 1.0130 %
10 on 78 0.9755 %

Okay, okay, I'll find the top "big" words. In that top ten list, I'm happy I used "you" more than "I."

Throwing out all articles, conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, variations on "be," and numbers (No, one, and two were all popular), my most-used major word is . . . (fanfare)

43 eyes 18 0.2251 %

Other popular words include line, still (ugh), time, blue, hand (and hands), end, face, light (I knew I was using that one a lot), legs, and world--all used 9 times or more in about 50 poems. Strange bigger words (more than one syllable) that I apparently use more than I remember: stories (6 times) and concrete (5).

On the plus side, I seem to have curtailed my overuse of fire, smoke, black, and breathing, all of which still show up some, but not an alarming amount. This manuscript may have an unhealthy obsession with body parts, though.

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New best search used to find this site:

Robert Sean Leonard's significant other

A week or two ago, Steve mentioned that he was ceasing his workshopping activities on the major public forums and confining them (the activities) to the (semi-)private workshops of Haven and three candles. I think that was a wise decision on his part, and I'm going to be following his lead at least partway. I've been going through a long disillusionment with the workshopping process, both locally and online, and several recent events have brought it to a head. I'll keep using three candles, which I recommend highly if you're serious about your craft and don't have a good workshop outlet right now, and I'll probably be returning to posting at Haven, which was a similar sort of place when I was there last. I'll keep posting my metrical attempts at the Eratosphere Deep End, but I think that'll about sum up my public forum workshopping.

First of all, I can't stand what goes on in many of the workshops at the big public forums. Too many people with a 1-2-3 algorithm approach to poetry, too much personal infighting (yes, I've been involved in some of that), too many lazy critiquers scoring near-free rides for their own poems, too much nice-nice to work that doesn't deserve it (though it's nothing compared to your average local workshop), and too many cocky beginners waltzing in with their journal entries or "experiments" that were passe with Modernism, then pissing all over anyone who tries to help. I'm too close to getting into a tangential rant about specific workshops, so I'll just drop it there.

Most in-person workshops don't really get it done for me either, though there's at least hope there. The ideal sort of group (for me) is about four to eight people, all of whom you respect and trust both as people and as poets. Of course, that's damn hard to get. I keep going to my current local group because there are a couple people who fit this bill very nicely (and I do like all the people in the workshop), but there are still a few who are really at odds with what I'd like to do poetically, and two of the people I very much respect poetically are also quite reserved with their opinions.

The thing that really highlighted the failures of these other workshops for me was the three-day session with Mark Jarman at West Chester. Though I didn't know any of the other people going in, it quickly became evident that they all knew a lot about poetry, and the workshop as a whole, especially with such a strong leader, struck a good balance between teasing out the strengths of a poem and identifying what needed to change, all without ignoring what the poet's intent was versus what the readers' biases were, and without being harsh to the poet. If I can get into more of that sort of situation, I'll be happy.

Since so few poets live in towns where they can actually get into that sort of local group, I think truly private online forums or e-mail lists that are unmoderated but that have an "owner" or coordinator and some sort of screening process to join could be the closest thing to an ideal solution for many of us.

Outside the question of how good or bad workshopping is in general, which seems like a debate for another day, what do you feel are the best and worst workshop situations, either face-to-face or online? In the meantime, maybe I'll see you at Haven or three candles.

For Deborah, 10 things you probably don't know about me.

• I have a small chunk of wood stuck in my head from when a young woman in Germany inexplicably lobbed a (bigger) chunk of wood at me. This incident has appeared in a poem of mine.
  
• I won the Math Student of the Year award in 8th grade despite getting a B in algebra because that same year I went to the National MathCounts competition (I finished 2nd in Colorado). This has not yet made its way into a poem.
  
• I have a long history of getting sick at zoos. This has appeared in two poems.
• I have never smoked a cigarette, but I have smoked a joint and a blunt.
  
• My brother has a band. Guess who's helping them build their website?
  
• I own my own pool cue and dart set.
  
• I often say that if I had $2000 to blow, I'd get a pool table. In fact, I'd be more likely to get laser eye surgery.
• In college, I played quiz bowl against Ken Jennings. Our team beat his more often than not.
• I am caring for a cat named Edgar Allen Poe for a friend who's on sabbatical from last August to this July. The cat is a Maine coon cat who weighs 15 pounds. I call him Edgar Allen Poo.
• In high school, I thought I was going to be a science fiction writer when I grew up. I still do.
• I've never broken a bone. On the other hand, I once had six baby teeth pulled at once.
  

Well, I could go on and on and on about the West Chester conference. Instead, I'll just try to sum up some of my thoughts about the whole thing.

• Overall, the week was a wonderful experience. Though it got a little too formal-orthodox at points, I think the conference provides value to anyone, including someone like me who writes 75% free verse (even if much of it is ghost-of-meter), who is interested in those metrical aspects, outlying aspects of the poetry that aren't inherently formal, and some of the best poets around.
• Getting to hear and meet some of my favorite poets was lovely. I especially enjoyed meeting Alicia Stallings and Pete Fairchild, both of whom were very gracious while I (of course) felt like I was coming across as a stammering goon.
• Almost everyone was super nice and highly accommodating. Dick Davis even got me a beer at one point.
  
• I think the most heartening thing about the conference for me was seeing how many young people (here meaning ~35 and under) are really passionate about poetry and about to make notable impacts with their own writing. From well-established people like Josh Mehigan to first-book-coming-soon people like Chelsea Rathburn to at least half a dozen people around my age who are going to get there, there won't be a dropoff. Poetry should be in good hands.
  
• Mark Jarman is as good a teacher as I remember, and incredibly generous. Dave Mason seemed to be everywhere. Sam Gwynn's reading was probably the best. Meg Schoerke provided some great dinner conversation. There are so many nice, smart, talented, etc. people that I met that there's no way I can remember them all, but here are some names I'll especially remember (either first-time meetings or people I already knew one way or another): Carrie Jerrell, Chris Michel, Chad Parmenter, Jee Leong Koh, Kevin Cutrer, Mary Agner, Tony Barnstone,Terri Witek, Rhina Espaillat, Mike Snider, Michael Cantor, David Anthony, and Kevin Walzer. If I met you there and haven't listed you, please don't be offended. There were so many people.
• Thanks to Michael Peich and Amy Brubaker for organization, and to Kean Spencer for financing many things and for having a party at his immense house.
  

There are a few more fun stories and detritus from the conference that I may post sometime, but I think the basics are covered. Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in this sort of thing. One warning: stay at Holiday Inn, not in the dorms.

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Quote of the Day:

"Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos."--The Big Lebowski

Okay, here's an exercise. You've just met someone you think is special (in a romantic way or a friendship way or whatever suits you for the exercise). They're smart (would you want 'em any other way?), but they don't really read poetry. However, because you're who you are, they want to learn more about poetry. To get them started, you must create a "poetry mix tape" of 10 poems as a starting point for their reading. The rationale for your picks can be pretty much whatever you want: your 10 favorite poems, 10 poems you think are intriguing for a newbie, 10 poems that reflect the aesthetic you're going for in your own writing, etc. The only rules are these:

• No poems of your own. You ought to know better!
• Since you can't be overwhelming them right off the bat, none of your mix-tape poems can be over three printed pages or about 150 lines. Sorry, no "Wasteland" or Paradise Lost as an appetizer.

Pretty much anything else goes. Feel free to provide the rationale for your picks individually or collectively, or not.

Here are my choices (a somewhat hasty set, but I like it as a mix):
"Ozymandias" by Percy Shelley
"Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen
"To Earthward" by Robert Frost
"The Panther" by Rainer Maria Rilke
"Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden
"Traveling Through the Dark" by William Stafford
"A Blessing" by James Wright
"A Starlit Night" by B. H. Fairchild
"Olduvai Gorge Thorn Tree" by Sarah Lindsay
"Here, Bullet" by Brian Turner

I bet I'd refine the list once I thought about it for more than fifteen minutes. Or more likely I'd make a half dozen poetry mix tapes for this significant new person in my life.

I'm off to West Chester now. I hope a few other people will pick up this ball and post their own "poetry mixes" on their blogs or in the comments. See you when I get back!