The Making of a Poem

Abstract

In 1984 a poem of mine won the National Poetry Competition. In this chapter I will show you how that poem came into being and the stages by which it developed into a publishable piece of writing. I will, then, be looking at a poem with you from the other side of the text, explaining how the poem’s structure, pace, diction and imagery, emerge from my reworking of the text over a number of months and a series of drafts.