I suppose we’ve all written them, ‘just about OK’ poems,
those based on a rising of, or sighting of, something of interest, not plonked
in the depths of profundity, not necessarily many-layered with meanings, not
unusual enough to register for a lifetime, not, perhaps, experimental or very
exploratory, only those that somehow need to be written and crafted, even if
never offered for publication. But are they worth keeping?
I feel so. I don’t see them as light, occasional poems,
nor as practise poems. For me the former are usually flipped off, most often
satires in meter and verse, often savagely political. Practise poems are where
I’m trying out a new form, or subverting it, or being experimental in some way.
I wouldn’t want them published, but do use lines from them in other poems:
otherwise, they get scrapped, though I might keep the title and notes for a
different poem on a similar theme.
What do the ‘just about’ ones contain? Most often,
there’s one understated theme; mostly they’re in free verse. The poem below,
“Looking Back,” is an example. Its only motif is an expression of what is gone
and what still survives, pursued through a very visual observation of what was
around me when living in Lincolnshire – a decaying maltings building and its
grounds beyond the end of my garden and views of the hills beyond. Neither the
trope nor the descriptive parts are highly original or striking. Though it was
edited four or five times and some lines changed, I didn’t check it for meter
or internal rhyme; in this case, those weren’t what I was after. Mostly, I was
going for a simple statement in simple language. There was no attempt to raise
the emotional pitch of its impact; the meaning and feeling either came through,
or it didn’t.
In sum, poems like this are usually quiet, relatively straightforward
and are usually observational. While not great or strongly arresting, they have
something to say and perhaps that something need not be extended to any great
length or depth or cleverness of language, image, form or motif.
‘Just about’ poems have a use. They’re a base-line. I
know, within a couple of drafts, when a poem I’ve written is better or worse
than these. If they’re worse, like practise poems they’re gutted for what is
salvageable and I reach for the rubbish bin for the rest; if better, then
they’ve a life (and lots of editing) of their own. I need base-lines; they’re
part of my post-writing assessment and editing process. They’ve changed and
developed over the years, but I still keep to the ‘just about’ poems as useful
guides to what is acceptable and what isn’t.
