Watch This Haiku Evolve: The Art of Revising a Small Poem

Every word in a poem should earn its place

Photo by David Gavi on Unsplash

Most people who write poetry in my classes have no idea how to tackle a revision or rewrite of a poem.

They know they “should”, but they think — what if I ruin it? What if I make it worse? And, of course, I kinda like it as it is.

Revision is about standing back and forgetting it’s your poem, if you can. It’s a skill to learn like any other. Ask yourself — how can I make this better?

I find workshopping so helpful. Other poets ask insightful questions, query things that don’t sound right to them (yes, opinion only, but still valuable), point out weak words.

Every word in a poem needs to earn its place. There aren’t that many of them, usually. Not like 80,000 in a novel. No, you might only have 50 or 60. Or in the case of a haiku, around 10.

So I will show you a revision process for a haiku I wrote. See what you think. I’m going for something fairly traditional, thus 17 syllables (5/7/5) and a turn into the last line, plus a sense of a season. Not exactly sticking to the rules but…

Draft 1

billowing blue dress