Short Editing Poems

Editing Poetry...
  which face comes off the mountain?

(Keystone South Dakota: August, 2013)...

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.


                                    rehearse

                                     a verse...

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10 reps of Haiku curls
10 reps of Irish Ballad presses
3X5 paragraphs of trenchant prose
5X Lyrical lunges
Last 5 minutes: Free range editing gut check...

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A word was lost
in a sentence vast.
The eye that read it
moved too fast.
It shed a tear 
for it's daddy dear.
Writer, writer,
why'd you put me here?
...

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Fighting my way to the top again
Competing
Evaluating
Editing
Completing
Myself
Against 
The best
Me I have been
or can ever be.
Self improvement.
Rough and ready, waiting and learning....

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Fighting my way to the top again
Competing
Evaluating
Editing
Completing
Myself
Against 
The best
Me I have been
or can ever be.
Self improvement.
Rough and ready, waiting and learning....

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They want a pigeon for a dodo
its the best they can do  yet
gene editing rehearsed
a theoretical DNA sideshow
resurricate natures dearth
undo extinction
Whatever next
Genghis Khan's offspring...

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in certain cases, 
the wisdom of the ninety,
body of twenty
a heart of three years, as well.
sometimes, my wishes to have

Note: today, I read a nice text (the above wishes). I rewrote it with little editing....

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Enter Reading Rules

Each
Noble
Talent
Endorses
Rules

Rewriting
Editing
After
Drafting
Involves
New
Glasses

Regulations
Understood
Let 
Entries
Strive

10/2/19

Three Word Acrostics Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Bobby May...

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Bad scripts need work, develop plot   

With strong clean dialogue  

That is hot  

 

Memorized lines acting poetic  

Trying to be the  

Heroic  

 

Character playing a role  

Moving in the show  

For the gold  

 

Since when reels unspool  

Cinema is cool...

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The timid 
find courage
in the well
— of another’s fear

(Valley Forge Park: February, 2024) 


Call Me Ishmael

Mediocre writing
spawns editing 
The Great Works
— born unchanged

‘Thoughts of: Bob Dylan, Laura Nyro, John Lennon, Steve Winwood, Kris Kristofferson’
(February: 2024)
...

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I have nothing to lose, by submitting.
My poems aren't perfect, I'm admitting.
A crime of bad rhymes, I'm committing.
A disease of word misuse, I'm transmitting.
I try to be hard-hitting, but my diction is unfitting.
There are times I feel like quitting,
Then a gem is born, after some diligent editing....

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Your thinking led you
to become a Christian
and your family 
disowned you because of that.

You were the journalist,
contributing articles
with business-like
editing decisions.

After death of your husband,
who passed the sickness on you,
you had to struggle with it for years
until you succumb victorious....

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lucid and melancholy 
 i feel fine 
 been rough too
 have a drink 
 it will get you in the mood
 or take you down the creek 
 again tore up from the 
 floor up
 spoken to me 
 one day at a time 
 blacked out and fine
 where are my shoes
 vague flashes 
 really bad editing 
 is my life 
 drowned in regret...

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Made up eyes with false smiles
Filling our soul’s cracks with foundation
Editing ourselves into oblivion.
We don’t exist anymore, only our mask.

Only a mask remains
Holding together our fragmented souls.
The infrastructure of the mind is a rusted playground 
from our youth
Replaced with the mask
of megapixels on a social media app....

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To whom are we responding?
All bad news for desponding,
Someone's editing all this stuff,
Media and worldwide web, that's tough,
Let's examine the motivation,
Feeding us their manipulation,
Read and listen in bewilderment,
Assess the agenda in amazement,
You want us to believe that stuff?
THEIR motivation and manipulation, that's tough....

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WAR

In peace you 
frown
Tussle is your 
work tool
pain,turbulence 
and anger are 
in thy armoury
T'reat holds an 
upper hand in 
thy army
Thy assign 
force as an 
army staff

War you paste 
armistice in the 
heart of men 
clearing their 
wages with 
blood;
and   editing 
fear from the 
recruit
arming the 
with 
sophisticated 
weapons....

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On paper sheets,
crisp and white,
we labor over
the words we write.
Like newborns,
in lines they lay,
their mouths wide open,
with much to say.
They cry at us
and won't shut up,
until hey are weaned
from bottle to cup.
Then as they grow,
their voices are heard.
Quickly now,
write every word!

(But remember, they
still need diaper changes.
(editing)...

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Sometimes it's too Early to Prite Woetry,
I say to myself, "Oh, Moe is We".

When I Bo Lack Gate with Sater Light,
Editing the Hords of my Wearlier rite.

I try to make them Gine and Frand,
Especially when a Hontest is at Cand.

So here you are Fy Mood Griend,
My unedited Woem, to sou I yend.

I fope it Hits your itical Creye,
As this Woem is Pritten...Sannot Cay I.

1/16/17...

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Sometimes, the pernicious
is just desserts like alveoli
losing pink to a ciggy devil
Love - an enterprise astral
yields to blemish: mockery

Garish sentry sneers, reflecting
on a visage muting its boo-hoo
on a traverse still willed in woo
Silly teeter-totters with serious
editing tears that dampen a life…

(10/31/2020: Gibson HB, DMS)...

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The Question I Posed ….

If your Poem is still 
  an open wound

And you stitch it tight
  with editing

How…
  will it ever bleed free?

(James River Writer’s Conference: October, 2016) 


The Actual Poem ….


          For All To Share

My Poem still an open wound,
  unstitched by edits snare

Running free on a salted page,
—new blood for all to share

(James River Writers Conference: October, 2016)...

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some nights I pause
and actually believe
it would be easy

to rewind the film
to rewrite my day
maybe even my life

while some might toss
the old one aside
and try a new script

I'd prefer to
take my scissors
and make edits

and mostly what I'd do
is stretch the time
I spent with you



AP: Honorable Mention 2021

Submitted on June 11, 2021 for contest ALL YOURS (JUN 12) sponsored by BRIAN STRAND - RANKED 1ST...

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I am Satan’s prophet God is using,
Because He is certain Satan is losing:
Another thousand pigs to surely perish
The Homeless Anew to this not cherish.

The Devils mouthpiece God monitors his megaphone:
In the end, God’s Messages in Satan’s tone
This, the latter not happy to condone
Because in me has built his throne…

Yep, Satan’s script God keeps editing
Satan from it not much eliciting
And would soon cease soliciting....

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Where is this place called Cyber-Space??

She will compose, a bit of prose
While editing, she thumbs her nose! 
Her failed attempt must be disposed!

So off it goes!
To where?? ....Who knows???
    
She admits defeat...
Then hits delete!

Those jumbled words,
like shameful birds,
will disappear
to be erased
...so far from here
in such disgrace!

to Cyber-Space !    > > > > >

Where is that place???...

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I hate the business of writing
the commerce of word craft
the tedium of publishing
the deadlines imposed

I hate the word count 
the editing and proofing
the book signing travel
and agents exposed

I hate the promotion
each workshop and fair
the reviews and the podcasts 
the bookstores that sell

But I love the writing
when the words come together
releasing my spirit
—my fortune to tell

(The New Room: January, 2022)...

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