Tough Cuts

The 1st manuscript for "Today Then Tomorrow" started out with over 60 poems and rough ideas.  Along the way cuts were made. Some of those decisions were easy.  There were just some poems that were not ready to published with this book. Others will never be published. They were either poorly developed or not worth writing about.  As the process of editing started to take shape, the choices of what to include and exclude in the book got decidedly more difficult.  It takes a healthy ego to make a cut of your own work.  It takes more than that to make a cut when you are so far along in the process.  A few nights ago I made probably the last cut of the book.  It was a poem that is probably 3 years old.  I never thought it would not be in the final draft. When I was starting out in this part of the editing process, I thought it was real strong.   It was a real hard decision to make the cut, but in one sense it was easy.  The hard part was temporarily discarding something you have worked on and with for a long time.  They're just words, but they become a part of you.  The easy part was recognizing that although the poem was strong, it did not in it's current state fit properly in the flow of the entire book.  In previous books of mine there have been poems I regret including in the book.  I am trying to avoid that this time around.  Months and years from publication, including this poem in it's current form would have bothered me. It wouldn't keep me up at nights, but it would have been a reminder that although I have developed a good sense of what works and what doesn't, I am still prone to let things slide that do not belong.  This poem will be published one day. I am sure of it. A few years back I wrote a poem that supposed to be included in my 2nd book "Independent"  That poem did not make the cut.  It needed a complete overhaul.   This poem had hours poured into it.  I believed in the idea and thought it was worth the effort.  The point of the anecdote is that after putting a tremendous effort to shaping this work, it became the opening poem to the coming book.  It is not my best work, although I am quite proud of it, but it will always be a symbol of what is possible when I dig in and work out an idea that has potential.  It is hard to make cuts.  Artistic triumph is not easy. It takes work, luck, and the ability to recognize and criticize quality in the creator's eye.