Pax Familia - Nan

Tonight I made what I believe will be my final edits to a poem I've had floating around for months. The poem, which is written in five small sections, has gone through many, many changes as I've worked to reduce my 'wordy' tendencies. I tend to gravitate towards sparse, sharp writing, but I often find it difficult to keep my own work clean and simple.

When I was younger, I used to hesitate to revise a poem once I'd written it because I felt that it would lose something from its original spirit. Silly, I know, but I wrote this way for years. Of course, now that I'm an editor I cringe at the very idea of sending a first draft out into the world. Revise, revise, revise. Always revise!

I'm fairly happy with the way the piece has turned out. My lovely literary scholar/best friend has also read it and given her valued seal of approval. However, I'm a little torn about whether I should post it on this blog or not. I know most of my readership in real life, so I'm not that worried about it being reclaimed somewhere on the world wide web. On the other hand, if I send it out to literary journals, I don't really want to have it already posted here.

I suppose for now I'll just have to be content with scratching another project off of my list (95). And perhaps posting a few lines just for fun...

Pax Familia - Nan (excerpt)

2.

We have culled her things
Searching for the ample lures of family history

Ancient sewing tools
Combines and wagons seized by rust
The machinery of true disfigurement

Oh, her horror stories were good

[If anyone is interested in reading the entire poem, just send me a note and I'll forward it via email. Even though I'm hesitant to post it, I would love some razor-sharp feedback.]