Thanks for bringing this up. (I sent my essay on it in to P&W, although that’s a long shot.)

I’ve realized that most of my poems that I’m working on right now are thematic but not actually a series (no necessary ordering).

And right now I’m having trouble finding a solid rhythm in any of my projects, which is uncomfortable for me. Even when I’m coming up with some intriguing one-off ideas, it’s still uncomfortable.

For fitting those one-offs into a collection, I’ve heard a few ideas to try: Find the thread that holds them together (chances are there is some overarching abstract idea that each of these poems is expressing in a different way). Then you can retitle the poems to fit your theme, or you can divide the poems into sections and use the section titles to bring in the theme. Okay, I’m out of ideas for now.

Finally, I proposed a session on writing poems in a series to Winter Wheat, and the response was positive. So this is even more on my mind than usual.

Yes. Sometimes is just want keep pulling on a thread.

For the past 25 years the major project I’ve been working on is a series of poems that grew out of traveling on the west coast with a friend in 1984. I’m near finishing it at this point.

It wouldn’t have occurred to me to set out intentionally to write a series of poems for the sake of doing so, or for the sake of creeating a publishable manuscript. It seems to me that something as basic and structural as that would need to come out of necessity, based on what the poems are about and an organic connection between them.

Now and then I’ll find that I’m writing several poems connected by the subject matter (for example, the war in Iraq, or a city I’ve visited, or a person who has recently entered my life, etc.), or connected more broadly by a less explicit theme or mood of some kind. Though when that’s happened I haven’t thought to arrange the poems consciously in a series. I mean, in general, all of the poems that any poet writes come from that poet’s experience in the world, so it’s likely that the poems will have connections with each other sometimes.

Something I’ve tried that helps with arranging poems in a manuscript is to take 10 or 15 poems I like by other poets, and pretending I’m putting them together in a small anthology. I listen for connections between the poems, or, alternately, for contrasts, how the beginning of one poem follows the ending of the poem before it, etc.

Using poems by other poets can be helpful because I’m not as emotionally invested in the poems, I can just listen to how the poems are working with each other without worrying about whether some editor will like them or not. I’ve practice doing this, the pretend small anthology, from time to time just to help keep my ear in tune. I’ve found it useful.

A great question. I have wandered more in the direction of the series as I’ve “progressed” in my writing. Two reasons in my case: First, it better permits me to explore a character; these don’t always separate easily. Also, there are some recurring areas of interest I have (technology, music) that seem stronger when taken together; these tend to be able to stand on their own better. Those are also the ones that “just work out”, that I don’t plan for but find out later they fit. However, I frequently find when I put them together that I have to sacrifice a more satistying element (sound or work choice, device) when I bundle them because similar devices grew when I was planting individuals.

Interesting area to explore….

By the way, when you get obsessed with an idea, is it the idea of expressing it in poetry that’s interesting to you or a general facination that tends to leak poems when you fill your brain up with material on the subject? I realized after my comment that it’s the _intersection_ of the idea with poetry that’s motivating for me, and since you have credentials in other areas I wondered if you might feel the same.

Thanks for all your comments, guys! Really helpful to hear.

Re: David – your question. I never try to write a poem about a certain subject; I try to write poems, and often the current obsession will show up in some way. I think my intake of culture does affect my output; if I’ve been watching one of Miyazaki’s films, for instance, some imagery from that film is bound to show up in my poems eventually. Same with reading material. I also think where I live affects what I write, as well. The ocean shows up a lot in the last few years when I’ve lived next to it, for instance.

Figured I should chime in since my name was invoked. 😉

A large reason why I write poems in series is for pragmatic reasons–I’m a binge writer, meaning I reserve a specific time during the calendar year to write without impediment. So every August I write a poem a day and often, the poems riff-off of each other. Much of the rest of the year is spent “filling-up” through reading and other pursuits.

I don’t think writing poems in a series is unlike what many painters do when they are about to tackle a large canvas. Lots of painters do smaller studies before they set the brush to the large canvas. Or they do sketches, drawings, etc., before an attempt at the major thing.

Now, I’m not saying the poems drafted from such a process are unfinished. What takes care of that issue is revision, but I am saying that initially, the poems as written in a series might be in response to a single impulse/obsession.

WV=shant

For the past year and a half I’ve been working on a series (book-length, eek!) for the first time in my life. It actually came about when the main character popped into my head and started chattering away, and I got very interested in some particular flavors of interpersonal dynamics that were convenient to address using this character & the character’s line of work. There’s a plot to the thing, even, although I know more of the plot than I’ve actually put into the poems. It’s a very different experience from writing one-off poems, and even when I think I’m writing a one-off poem now the series tends to pop into it – I can’t just write a poem about sitting on a bus with a smudge on the windows without it turning into the particular bus that my particular character would be sitting on.

I think it’s winding down now and I’m not sure what will happen next, which is terrifying!

I have in the past written in series, but I find that I get bogged up that way. For some reason, writing in a series puts me in too specific a frame of mind, and I begin to believe (though who knows if this is rightly so) that my writing begins to take on an obvious sort of pattern.

I still write series every so often, but anymore, I try to write them in sandwiches. That is, a poem by itself, followed by one from a series, followed by a poem by itself.

I think a poet, a poet with experience, a poet with a collection or two already under his or her belt, will write the poems that need to be written and the poems will choose their own direction.

Theodore Roethke once wrote that after a while the poems he wrote formed their own narrative arc and the problem of “arranging” them into a cohesive collection wasn’t even a consideration.

Rebecca