Culling

First, some matter-of-fact good news: my poem 'My Granddad Buries King at Souter Lighthouse' is the featured poem this week on Claire Askew's wonderful blog, One Night Stanzas. This will shortly be followed by several other online poems and then, eventually, the (ever so nearly) finished product: the pamphlet. I've had to think a lot about what to cull from the manuscript, both for reasons of space and tone. A big sticking point in deciding what to chop was getting over my sentimental attachment to two of the oldest poems. As writers, we are constantly warned against this kind of practice; of investing unwarranted emotion in something, but when it comes to poems that are really quite personal, and have been knocking about for nearly 5 years, it becomes more tough to shoe them out. Anyway, shoed they have been and I'm sure the now slightly more compact pamphlet will read better for it. I hope. My next post will contain proper, concrete information about the pamphlet, by the way. You know, the type I've been hinting at for ages: where, when, how (much), why (not) etc...