Poetic organization

While working on "Poetry Escaping the Drawer", I found myself reorganizing my old unpublished poem collections. Don't get me wrong - this was not organization for publication. I have been writing poetry for more than a decade now, and this constant dialogue with my drawer will continue regarding the main body of my work. It is most probable that most of the newly organized collections shall remain unpublished for eternity.

But the tasks woven in the process of publication made me reconsider what I thought connected the poems written in the past. Everyone reading poetry knows that any poet wrote some poems better than others. Every reader prefers some poems over others. This preference would probably make each reader create his own collection out of the body of work of a favorite poet. But the logic behind putting some poems together goes beyond liking them. It has to do with the subjects they deal with, the emotions they raise, the message they bear.

I have a deep suspicion that this internal reorganization is going to haunt me whenever I come close to a point where a I consider another publication. Although extremely uncomfortable at times, the process of picking up an old poem, and examining it with older, more experienced eyes, has a great value in itself, regardless of the resulting decisions....