I was at the open mic at the Sadoff Center. In Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. A person new to poetry read a letter she had written to herself as part of a recovery exercise.

I asked her if she was surprised to find that she had positive and encouraging things to say.

 She said yes.

I find this happening to me many times. I write about something in a journal and something other than I intend is written on the paper. That, to me, is the process of the brain getting organized by writing. By using different neurons to consider your situations.

Then creating a poem and editing it is a further conversation with yourself. To discover a new way of looking at things. Our minds ramble and we don’t decide what thoughts come into our head. Left unorganized, the negative thoughts win out. If you say you are not good and are a failure, then you will not take risks. Our brains are wired to keep safe.

But writing that letter pulled up ideas her mind ignored. Turning the letter into a poem gave her time with these new ideas and exploring them.

To me, this is proof that editing makes a better piece of writing and makes a better you. Editing is always a worthwhile task.

Here are some examples of revisions I made-

Original

Time is beautiful when you are young

So you fall in love with it

It excites your cells your face shows

your infatuation

Revised

Time is beautiful when you are young

you fall in love with it

It excites your every cell

 your face flushes to meet it.

Revised again

Time is beautiful when you are young

you fall in love with it

It excites your every cell

 your face flushes in its gaze.

Revising helped me find the right image that matches what I want to say and hopefully the right image to reach a reader.

By replacing abstract words, I hope I got closer to what I wanted to say. Because I am being less generic. And by being less generic, I can express my own version of the world. There is a juxtaposition that I believe happens here. By being more personal, I actually validate what others are thinking.