Hidden Treasures: Finding Poems Within Your Poems by Shutta Crum

One and done, should not be the case for many poems. Why waste such a wealthy resource as a poem by only publishing it once in its entirety, or reprinting it whole? The truth is, like any good non-fiction writer who mines their research and articles for possible other perspectives on the material—poets can do the same. If you’ve got a longer poem, is it possible to pull out bits and pieces of it for a micro-poem? Can you reword a portion of it for a slightly different take on the subject? Or do a blackout poem using your original as the basis?

Mining the old for the new

I wrote a poem called “The Canoeist.” It was first published in the Southern Poetry Review (2020). Here it is as it appeared in the poetry journal:

The Canoeist

He travels the river—

raising only a ripple fore and aft.

His paddle perfects silver spirals

upon the surface. The only sound

the plink and plonk of water

as he dips into stillness.

He passes homes,

manicured lawns, boat docks.

He hears children. People wave,

or stare from their deck chairs.

A heron rises from the reeds.

Now, fewer watch his passing.

He will not return.

They know well what is downstream

where the current stalls,

where cattails, water lilies,

spatterdocks encroach, and roots catch.

Of an evening, some will walk

to the water’s edge and listen

for the distant plying of his paddle,

or the subtle wash of his passage

across the surface of the night.

They will breathe in the river damp,

knowing he is out there

where the dark wild closes in.

And here is a senryu (a type of haiku) I pulled from it, adding only two new words:

reeds, treefall, roots

the dark wild is down-river

he will not return

A successful example

Kristin Lenz met a challenge head-on with one of her poems and came out with a great conclusion. Here is her beautiful poem in its entirety:

Kristin decided to enter a NY Times short poem contest. Initially, when she read the instructions, she thought the poems were limited to fifteen lines. So, she worked on reordering her poem. But when she went to submit it, she saw that it was actually limited to fifteen words!

This time she sorted through her already fairly short poem for the “meat” of it. She looked at three things she’d learned from poetry mentor Heather Meloche:  

1. the subject of the poem 

2. the main metaphor 

3. the epiphany/turn 

Her subject was her daughter learning to ride her bicycle. The main metaphor was learning to ride safely equals learning to navigate through life. The turn was letting her go, out of sight.

Here is the short poem she submitted and had accepted by the NY Times (Yay, Kristin!):

While I absolutely adore the whole poem she’d written earlier, the short snippet also works as a wonderful micro-poem.

Mining older full-length poems is also a way to get unstuck—to get that poetry making mojo working again if you’re staring at a blank page/screen. Try it and see what happens. You just might end up a winner, as did our friend Kristin.

Shutta Crum is the author of several middle-grade novels and many picture books, poems and magazine articles. THUNDER-BOOMER! was an ALA and a Smithsonian “Notable Book.” MINE! was reviewed by the N.Y. Times as “a delightful example of the drama and emotion that a nearly wordless book can convey.” Her books have made Bank Street College lists as well as state award lists. WHEN YOU GET HERE, a collection of poems for adults, won a gold medal from the Royal Palm Literary Awards, 2020 and 2021 (FL). For more information: www.shutta.com. 

Here's Shutta's most recent poetry book for older readers: When You Get Here 

A note from Kristin:

Thanks to Shutta for analyzing my poetry process for me! Shutta adapted this blog post from one she first wrote for the Florida Writers Association. Some of this poetry analysis was prompted by a virtual Poetry Panel for the SCBWI-MI Shop Talk in Farmington. If you missed it, you can watch the recording for a limited time: https://michigan.scbwi.org/events/scbwi-mi-farmington-hill-shop-talk/

We have many wonderful poets in SCBWI-MI, writing for children and adults. You'll see many of their announcements on social media and on the MichKids listserv. Stay involved here: https://michigan.scbwi.org/online/

I'll add another Kidlit example to Shutta's concept of mining for hidden treasures. My YA short story, Spontaneous Combustion, was a runner-up in a 2020 flash fiction contest, max word count: 750. I later cut and revised that story into a poem, "Soccer Rules," that was recently published in an anthology, Rhyme & Rhythm: Poems for Student Athletes. It was a good opportunity to play with character development and descriptive language. It could even be a launching point for a novel!

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