Arlene Corwin writes

Transform A Bad Poem To A Good Poem

        (tinkering & fooling ‘round)

It may take days, months, years:

You tinker.

That’s the key. 

You definitely do not linger,

But go ‘way, come back, go on

To see with psychic opticons

(my own construct-ee-on) a vision

Of’ creative options,

Freedom new,

A fooling ‘round

That’s new for you -

And you are new and changed a little;

Flexible, unbrittle-ized,

(another word vocabul-ized)

A new-sized you

Wherein you see the tool in all,

And all’s a tool.

You’ve fooled around

Just as I’ve done

With word and sound,

And lo, a sound and solid poem transformed

From

Bad to good.

[I sent this to June Calender, who commented, “I agree with everything except the last two lines which I don't quite understand. I've often heard Paul Valery quoted:  "Poems are never completed -- they are only abandoned.” I responded, “ I don't agree with Valery -- I think the best poems are completed (and there are a lot from Shakespeare onward.”  

Last line interpreted: when inspiration comes, you see and get possibilities in and from just about everything. In jazz, for example, every note becomes a 'right' note because the brain is working at an optimal level and can put every sound to use. Depending on the level of talent the improvisation, the notes as tools, will either be good, bad or mediocre. You must have experienced that phenomenon at times - when you're quilting or writing your stories or cooking an unplanned meal.  Every little things around becomes an ingredient to be used. 

How's this?  For all I know this is a 'bad one' needing transmogrification. It is, however a revised one.]  

  

Transforming A Bad Poem Into A Good One

It may take days, months, years –

You tinker: that’s the key.

To definitely not linger

But go ‘way, come back, go on to see

With eyes revitalized.

To see creative possibilities -

Redoing, reconstructing, rearranging, revolutionizing.

You are new and one might say, revised,

Wherein you see a tool in all

And everything as tool.

 The Animal Watcher -- Patricia Traub