My 12 Steps for Poetry Writing

Below is a stream of consciousness poem I wrote an hour ago. Lots of imagery potential here! Today I thought I’d share how I usually approach poem writing.

1. Write rough cut in pen or marker
2. Run away from it! It needs time to rest.
3. Look at it with an unbiased mind
4. Say “hey this isn’t so bad”
5. Say “except this right here is awful”
6. Subtract
7. Run away again
8. Read it aloud
9. Fine tune
10. Publish or
11. Put it away until I run out of ideas
12. Return when I’m a better writer and revise