Every morning I wake up and read through my second manuscript of poems. I start at page one and read each line. I look at how the poems bump up against each other. I look how I travel from one poem to the next. I examine the images that move throughout the collections and how they move from poem to poem.
This is how I do the final revision. Earlier, I added poems to the manuscript. Each day, I find these weaker poems being removed. Ten days ago, the manuscript was 65 pages, now it's down to 55. Tomorrow, who knows, 54?
Tomorrow like yesterday, I will wake up and read the entire manuscript again-- with new eyes. I will keep doing this until I have four or five days in a row where I do not make changes. Once I stop making changes, I will know it is done. Right now, I feel it's done, but I have a feeling tomorrow, I'll be taking out a poem I recently put back in. Four days of no changes. I hope for it. I feel very close.
