Mslexia

Mslexia, the magazine for women who write | www.mslexia.co.uk

Inspirations

WENDY COPE

FIRST DRAFT: Writing to length

A published author compares a segment of her book in relation to an earlier draft, discussing how – and why – she made her editing choices.

DRAFT

Fireworks Poem 2

Write it in fire across the skies
There’s such a thing as a nice surprise

He loves me

He loves me too
A nice surprise                         16 syllables
Write it in fire
Across the skies

He loves me too
A nice surprise                          X
Write it in fire
Across the skies

He loves me too
It is no lie
Write it in fire
Across the sky

Write it in fire
Across night
There’s such a thing
As Mr Right

Recantation

Write it in fire
Across the night
Some men are more or less
All right

Write it in fire
Across the night:
Some men are more or less
All r

Recantation

Write it in fire across the night:
Some men are more or less all right

                                                                16 syllables

PUBLISHED VERSION

Fireworks Poem 2

Write it in fire across the night:
Some men are more or less all right

This feature has been selected from the Mslexia archive. For the latest on the writing world, publishing and creativity subscribe now. To sample more Mslexia features or to find out about the latest issue click here.

Go to:
Submit
New Writing

From Issue 25 ◊ Apr/May/Jun 2005

THE WORK

‘The poem was commissioned by the Salisbury Festival for the Millennium celebrations. A hundred poets were asked to write poems that would be reproduced in various unusual ways: on beer mats, in glass, on posters. I was asked to write something that could be displayed in fireworks.

‘At first I wondered if I should take offence. Was this a comment on the supposed ephemerality of my work? But I discovered I wasn’t the only one they asked for a fireworks poem. And it was a nice challenge: to say something worth saying in very few words. I rang the fireworks company who said it mustn’t be longer than a haiku. That’s why I was counting syllables.

‘I write all my drafts in pencil. I don’t rub anything out or throw a draft away – that’s very important to me – because I might want to go back to it. Once I’ve got going with a poem, I can work on it in my head.

‘What took time with this poem was trying out different ideas, looking for the right one. I thought, what would I like to say in fireworks? I was going through a religious phase at the time, so there were pages and pages of religious ideas that didn’t work.

‘The title, “Recantation”, was because I had written some hostile poems about men. I hate the title now; it’s embarrassing. Actually I find all of these drafts rather embarrassing. The first couplet is especially lame, but it turned out to be a step in the right direction.
‘Each time I try something new, I like to write the poem out again. That’s why I didn’t just add “too” to “He loves me” in the second draft. I preferred to begin a completely new draft. And that’s why the third and fourth drafts are exactly the same. I quite often do that: write a poem out again, to see how it feels. Then I put a cross next to it, because it wasn’t good enough.

‘The humour doesn’t come in until the very end. That’s quite common with me too. I’ll often be writing a really miserable poem, then work myself around to seeing the funny side. In this poem the mood changes quite a bit from the first to the final draft. It becomes calmer and more cynical as it develops.

‘I never saw the fireworks lit. But a friend said it was a bit drizzly that evening, so it was rather disappointing. But the Festival produced a mug with the poem on, so I bought a few and presented them to deserving men.’