Editing a section, I want to keep everything. I can remember writing this particular poem and believe that, as a poem itself, it is quote good. But that is not how a section or collection is constructed. There must be a theme. Each poem is valued not only as an individual, but for its contribution to the theme and progression of the section as a whole. So that sometimes I’m forced to omit one of the best poems from a section, strictly because it is an outlier from the others.
I think of this also in terms of constructing an identity. There must be a theme to a person, not because a person cannot be eclectic or cannot have multiple seemingly contradictory characteristics—in fact, these seeming contradictions can turn out be synergies. Rather, I mean that a person must have a theme because your pursuits must be focused if you hope to make progress.
For example, I started a career in sales. But I also had a desire to learn to play the keyboard. When I discussed this with my sales director in my first job out of college, he told me, “Well, you have to choose.”
I am also reminded of some advice I have read somewhere regarding writing, to “kill your darlings.” Commitment is about sacrifice. When considering the value of something, it can be valued as a thing itself, or valued for its contribution to the whole.
As I progress in my career and take on longer-term projects in my art, I realize it is much more about wholes—team, community, society, family, collection—than it is about parts or individuals—me, myself, and I, thinking only for the fast and short-term.
I see a good poem that doesn’t fit in with the chapter, and it reminds me of my young self—sometimes it must be deleted for the sake of a more cohesive whole.