Where do all the Poems go?

[AChild]

Covered what you write with or on. Now where does it go. Is it cataloged? How? Do you keep certain poems together and certain ones apart? Are they backed up? With what? Besides here do you share your poetry? At family reunions? to lovers on the make? Do you leave them like flyers in wind shield wipers?

Or are you like me. A poem pig. Writing on anything that would hold still enough to be marked. I wrote sayings on my walls and asked by friends to do the same. Poems written on scraps of paper, menus, bills, receipts, in notebooks from classes and seminars. Poems is the borders of books and poems I wrote in my girlfriends sketch book when she was not looking. As a result of this I don't know the depth of my work.

Do you think it is important to have tabs on all your little creations?

Oh yeah and HAPPY NEW YEAR! 9 is the number of change.

 

[Angeline]

Covered what you write with or on. Now where does it go. Is it cataloged? How? Do you keep certain poems together and certain ones apart? Are they backed up? With what? Besides here do you share your poetry? At family reunions? to lovers on the make? Do you leave them like flyers in wind shield wipers?

Or are you like me. A poem pig. Writing on anything that would hold still enough to be marked. I wrote sayings on my walls and asked by friends to do the same. Poems written on scraps of paper, menus, bills, receipts, in notebooks from classes and seminars. Poems is the borders of books and poems I wrote in my girlfriends sketch book when she was not looking. As a result of this I don't know the depth of my work.

Do you think it is important to have tabs on all your little creations?

Oh yeah and HAPPY NEW YEAR! 9 is the number of change.

I've never been much of a poem pig (well not in the way you describe) because I almost never write anywhere but the computer. That's because I'm a lefty (in oh so many ways lol), and my writing is a) total chickenscratch and b) gets all smeary as does my hand. A keyboard is like freedom for me. My poetry greatly improved when I began using one because it was so much easier. I do have a certain amount of slovenliness on my hard drive but not too much.

Years ago I created something called my master poem file. Most (not all because of the slovenly factor) are in the file alphabetically. I also have a spreadsheet with a list of all my poems by type--form or free verse, erotic or non-erotic, year first written, published or not, topic (well, music-related or not). I have close to 2,000 poems so I had to do something. I couldn't find stuff, and sometimes can't even remember what I've written. The spreadsheet helps a lot with that and then I can go in the master file and find a poem to edit, send out for publication, whatever. Around five years ago I moved and lost a disc that had over 100 illustrated poems on it. It was like losing children and it taught me the value of making and updating backup copies. I resave to a cd every few months (or more often depending on how much new stuff I'm writing). Sometimes though I've written stuff here and totally forgotten about it. I've found poems years later.

I'm lucky in that eagleyez is also a poet and we love to read to each other. Aside from him, no one in my non-poetry world is too interested in what I write. That think it's great that I do or that I'm "talented...blah blah," but don't want to hear it basically. It's one of the reasons I so treasure being here. Oh wait--my kids, especially my daughter like to read my stuff. That makes me very happy.

PS Yay change! Yay January 20th!

 

[AChild]

Super sweet. Me likes the spread sheet idea. Dates are really important too. Now I just have to face the reality of that long afternoon in front of the computer peeling through every piece of paper I have. Well I guess that is what spring cleaning is for.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

What a great idea to leave them like flyers in wind shield wipers I must give that a go I wonder ones I should leave? oh and BTW I hate being read to much rather read it myself with my own interpretation

 

[Angeline]

What a great idea to leave them like flyers in wind shield wipers I must give that a go I wonder ones I should leave? oh and BTW I hate being read to much rather read it myself with my own interpretation

Under the right circumstances it can be a delicious experience.

I bet you'd let Orlando Bloom read to you!

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Under the right circumstances it can be a delicious experience.

I bet you'd let Orlando Bloom read to you!

Hmmmmmm I will have to think on that one lol but I speed read not quite sure where I picked up that 'trick'. When we had a delay at an airport last summer I sat and read a book my sister was amazed saying I must miss a lot but I don't and if I am showing Ron some story online I get bored stiff waiting for him to catch me up so I can scroll up

 

[Angeline]

Hmmmmmm I will have to think on that one lol but I speed read not quite sure where I picked up that 'trick'. When we had a delay at an airport last summer I sat and read a book my sister was amazed saying I must miss a lot but I don't and if I am showing Ron some story online I get bored stiff waiting for him to catch me up so I can scroll up

I taught speed reading years ago. It's pretty easy to learn but not a good method when you want to savor what you read (and I'm a very fast reader--I have to force myself to slow down). And I learned a speed-reading joke then (that I think came from Woody Allen): "I took a speed-reading course and when I finished it I read War and Peace. It's about Russia."

So do you organize your poems? Besides putting them on windshields? I have a few hundred poems I may do that with, but I'm not putting my name on them.

 

[UnderYourSpell]

I taught speed reading years ago. It's pretty easy to learn but not a good method when you want to savor what you read (and I'm a very fast reader--I have to force myself to slow down). And I learned a speed-reading joke then (that I think came from Woody Allen): "I took a speed-reading course and when I finished it I read War and Peace. It's about Russia."

So do you organize your poems? Besides putting them on windshields? I have a few hundred poems I may do that with, but I'm not putting my name on them.

I am the most disorganized untidy person you are ever likely to meet and also when I have written the poem it is sent out into the world to fend for itself in whatever rough apparel it is wearing

 

[Angeline]

I am the most disorganized untidy person you are ever likely to meet and also when I have written the poem it is sent out into the world to fend for itself in whatever rough apparel it is wearing

If I had more time, I'd go through your stuff here and force a file on you lol. You have some wonderful poems here and if this site were ever to go down for good (which can happen just about anywhere online, really), you'd lose all your poems. I don't want you to lose those poems!

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Aghhhhhhhhhh she spoke the nightmare words but apart from going through them all and copy pasting ...... and I am sooooooo lazy

 

[AChild]

?Por que no?

 

[UnderYourSpell]

Is this French week and nobody told me lol?

 

[EroticOrogeny]

I've never been much of a poem pig (well not in the way you describe) because I almost never write anywhere but the computer. That's because I'm a lefty (in oh so many ways lol), and my writing is a) total chickenscratch and b) gets all smeary as does my hand. A keyboard is like freedom for me. My poetry greatly improved when I began using one because it was so much easier. I do have a certain amount of slovenliness on my hard drive but not too much.

Years ago I created something called my master poem file. Most (not all because of the slovenly factor) are in the file alphabetically. I also have a spreadsheet with a list of all my poems by type--form or free verse, erotic or non-erotic, year first written, published or not, topic (well, music-related or not). I have close to 2,000 poems so I had to do something. I couldn't find stuff, and sometimes can't even remember what I've written. The spreadsheet helps a lot with that and then I can go in the master file and find a poem to edit, send out for publication, whatever. Around five years ago I moved and lost a disc that had over 100 illustrated poems on it. It was like losing children and it taught me the value of making and updating backup copies. I resave to a cd every few months (or more often depending on how much new stuff I'm writing). Sometimes though I've written stuff here and totally forgotten about it. I've found poems years later.

I'm lucky in that eagleyez is also a poet and we love to read to each other. Aside from him, no one in my non-poetry world is too interested in what I write. That think it's great that I do or that I'm "talented...blah blah," but don't want to hear it basically. It's one of the reasons I so treasure being here. Oh wait--my kids, especially my daughter like to read my stuff. That makes me very happy.

PS Yay change! Yay January 20th!

Spreadsheet - never thought about that as a means of cataloging. I have a couple of text files in my poetry folders where I track similar (maybe not as much) information. I can do things faster in a text editor (emacs) than in a word processing or spreadsheet app.