how often do you read your old poems

[Maria2394]

I was sitting here, going through some floppy disks and old notebooks and found things I had forgotten about for a while. I began reading and eventually found myself going back through my newer work and what is posted here on Lit as well.

I am just curious. How often do any of you go back and read your own works? and why? what are you looking for: inspiration, remembering an emotion or memory that inspired a certain poem, or do you just read them because you like them. Also, when you read something of your own you might have forgotten about, what is your usual reaction to the piece? are you ever surprised that you wrote it, or shocked, embarrassed that you wrote something so silly/nasty/sensual/ so damned great!!/ or underwhelmingly bad...
thanks in advance for sharing have a wonder-filled day, maria

still unconsumed by the light of the noonmoon

 

[Guest]

When I do read over my poetry, sometimes I can't believe that I wrote it: "Hmm.. that ain't too shabby." and occasionally: "Wow, that really blows." So, yes I go over my old poetry often, but it's usually to slightly edit the 'not too shabbies' or to rewrite the ones that 'really blow'. None of my poems are ever complete.


- neo

 

[RazzRajen]

I read them after some time after I have written them. Sometimes maybe a year later or more. Just to see where I was and where I am now

and also to realise where I am going with my thoughts.

When I was younger, before personal computers existed and programs were written in punch cards read by a "computer reader machine", I used pen and paper and kept files.

and those I cannot find what box I stored them in ....
you don't want to know how many boxes I have accumulated over the many years....

and now I rarely use a pen anymore except when away from the pc and the mood strikes.

Razz

 

[weed]

I go in spurts and spaz's.

Sometimes months without looking at my own stuff and then I'll go back and read it all.

Some I like more than others but once I'm done with a poem, I'm done. Whether bad or good but it's left just the way it is.

 

[Angeline]

I have poems and fragments of poems or ideas for them going back to when I was a little kid. Except for what I've written in the last few years, I almost never look at them (the high school love poems alone make me wince more than I can stand, lol). My more recent poems (some still winceable), I read pretty regularly cause they're all on my pc or backed up on cd. I revise them or, if I think the poem isn't working overall, steal pieces to put into new poems.

 

[_Land]

Poetry Thief(Angeline)

I often steal from older poems too, as I often started them with a great oneliner that caught my ear. then i trashed them with to much wordiness or meaningless drivel.

I re-read my poetry often, if for no other reason to see how much i have improved over the last year or so.


_Land

 

[Angeline]

Who was it who said they ought to award a Nobel Prize for plagiarism? Noel Coward?

 

[Guest]

Who was it who said they ought to award a Nobel Prize for plagiarism? Noel Coward?

You can't plagiarize yourself?
if that's the case then I need to get myself a good lawyer...


- neo

 

[Angeline]

You can't plagiarize yourself?
if that's the case then I need to get myself a good lawyer...

Well uh if it were only me whose words or phrases I was hijacking, I wouldn't feel a need to backpedal (as I am about to seriously do ), but I am constantly ripping off a word or two from poems or lyrics that I love. What's more I don't think that is wrong or even bad.

I'm not stealing someone else's poem and saying I wrote it (that *would* be wrong and bad). Rather, I'm using a line from a lyric to evoke a sound or image for the reader or (in my mind) paying tribute to a writer or poem I love. Here's an example:

The first two lines of my newly posted Bibliobliss are-

When he opens a book
he opens my life

which are a variation on-

When I close a book
I open life.

from Pablo Neruda's Ode to the Book.

I love that poem, and Bibliobliss is somehow derivative of it. I see that sort of referencing as no different from Eliot or Joyce or other writers who refer to Shakespeare or whoever in similar ways in their poems.

Does anyone else do this?

 

[Guest]

I love that poem, and Bibliobliss is somehow derivative of it. I see that sort of referencing as no different from Eliot or Joyce or other writers who refer to Shakespeare or whoever in similar ways in their poems.

Does anyone else do this?

Oh, I do that all the time. Make up my words to the music. A great melody inspires words. And as for snagging words.. Ya, I do that too. I like the way someone used the word 'mire' in their poem so I used 'mired' in one of mine.

So ya, dabble in the 'P' word in that sense... that's what you mean isn't it Angeline? If not—I have a friend of a friend who's a so-so lawyer.


- neo

 

[Angeline]

So ya, dabble in the 'P' word in that sense... that's what you mean isn't it Angeline? If not—I have a friend of a friend who's a so-so lawyer.

I never said I P (lol, what a conversation). It's not P, it 's T. Yeah. T for tribute. And see that Word Pervert person in my sig line? This is all his fault because he told me that quote. He's in a world of trouble.

 

[Maria2394]

I have poems and fragments of poems or ideas for them going back to when I was a little kid. Except for what I've written in the last few years, I almost never look at them (the high school love poems alone make me wince more than I can stand, lol). My more recent poems (some still winceable), I read pretty regularly cause they're all on my pc or backed up on cd. I revise them or, if I think the poem isn't working overall, steal pieces to put into new poems.

I've never taken a piece of an old poem and used it in a new one, but I have dissected several stories that really BIT hard and used what I thought were good lines or descriptions in a new story.

several of my poems are inspired by songs...The Seer, for instance and I have no idea why an old Boston song ( don't look back) would inspire a poem like that , but it did and I have already pulled several of my poems of here because I went back, to see if I had grown in my short time here and yikes, I couldnt believe how bad the ones I pulled were...always room for growth i guess

 

[SpiceCake]

I read my old poems often. They tell me so many things about where I've been and where I am...even where I need to be heading. I can also see my growth as a poet.

 

[The_Fool]

*Blank stare* Is reading a requirement for this job?

 

[Rybka]

The Question Is Moot

I sent my computer in for an upgrade last week. It came back faster and bigger, but without any of my data or e-mail addresses. I cannot read any of my poems, finished or not. They are gone.

Rybka

 

[Guest]

Re: The Question Is Moot

I sent my computer in for an upgrade last week. It came back faster and bigger, but without any of my data or e-mail addresses. I cannot read any of my poems, finished or not. They are gone.

Rybka

Aghast!

 

[The_Fool]

Re: The Question Is Moot

I sent my computer in for an upgrade last week. It came back faster and bigger, but without any of my data or e-mail addresses. I cannot read any of my poems, finished or not. They are gone.

Rybka

Did they do a backup or ghost of your harddrive before upgrading? They might have and just not loaded it.

 

[Rybka]

Re: Re: The Question Is Moot

Did they do a backup or ghost of your harddrive before upgrading? They might have and just not loaded it.

No he did not. He was just supposed to chain a new HD onto the old one, but instead he simply replaced it. When I brought this to his attention he lost the data while trying to port it to the new drive and reformat the old drive. There is a faint chance it may be recoverable form the host drive he initially moved it to, but he has had since Friday to recover it and has not been sucessful as of yet. So I fear 50 years of writing, plus all my e-mail histories are lost for good. I don't know what I can still find in long unused written files. - I most miss my unfinished works, both poems and a novel, which I will never be able to recreate.

Rybka

 

[RazzRajen]

Re: Re: Re: The Question Is Moot

No he did not. ............
sucessful as of yet. So I fear 50 years of writing, plus all my e-mail histories are lost for good. I don't know what I can still find in long unused written files. - I most miss my unfinished works, both poems and a novel, which I will never be able to recreate.

Rybka

Rybka

Have heard of Data recovery firms in the Toronto area who can recover data from drives that have suffered total crashes and supposedly unrecoverable. Found them a year back when I deleted a file and needed that back

A google search for data recovery firms or programs may find them for you.

Razz

 

[Icingsugar]

Re: The Question Is Moot

I sent my computer in for an upgrade last week. It came back faster and bigger, but without any of my data or e-mail addresses. I cannot read any of my poems, finished or not. They are gone.

Rybka

Ouch, and ouch again. I know that feeling. It is not a nice one.

I have six years of music production on a hard drive that will not spin anymore. The data is there, but I can't get to it. I contacted one of those data recovery firms. They let me know that they could indeed restore it, but that it was not a simple matter, since the drive was physically damaged. To do it, they'd charge something like $1500.

That's a lot of money for something that only has emotional value to me. So I have the drive collecting dust on my shelf. And one day, when (?) I get filthy rich...

Listen to Razz, if you have the means, a professional data recoverer should be abble to salvage at least some of what you lost. Just make sure you don't use that HD until then. If it's in the computer you use right now, pull the plug, yank it out and scan the yellow pages for data recovery.

 

[Rybka]

Unfortunately he reformated the old drive when he put it back in the upgraded machine, and its contents got "super" erased instead of reloaded.

 

[RazzRajen]

Unfortunately he reformated the old drive when he put it back in the upgraded machine, and its contents got "super" erased instead of reloaded.

Ouch...

WHat about using their fixit / find it programs on teh host drive he transferred to roiginally..... < clutching at straws here> Know how it feels to lose data

 

[Angeline]

Rybka, I just saw this, and am so sorry--what an awful thing to happen. I have an old dead laptop with a few stories on the hard drive, but that's nothing compared to what you describe. How much are you able to recreate from other sources?

Anyone who reads this and does not immediately back up their files to disc or cd, um ...cmere, I'll smack ya.

 

[Icingsugar]

Unfortunately he reformated the old drive when he put it back in the upgraded machine, and its contents got "super" erased instead of reloaded.

Do you know which metod he used to reformat it? If it was just a simple FAT format, there can be recoverable data left on the drive (but will be less and less, if you keep using it). I still think you should locate a data recovery firm and at least ask them what they think before giving up.

 

[RazzRajen]

Do you know which metod he used to reformat it? If it was just a simple FAT format, there can be recoverable data left on the drive (but will be less and less, if you keep using it). I still think you should locate a data recovery firm and at least ask them what they think before giving up.

Agrees with Icingsugar these guys know their stuff and as liong as the data is not completely written over they can do wonders. Its worth a try Rybka It is not as expensive as with a physically damamged HD soince this is all software related.

I would not give up either

Razz