I’m talking the poems you might kinda like in the moment., but in your heart of hearts you know that maybe they weren’t finished cooking quite yet.

But this isn’t always super obvious to me right away.

I often find myself thinking No, it’s still good, it just hasn’t found its home...but then in the back of my mind I catch myself also thinking Eh, I don’t feel like revising this. I have others I’m more excited about.

And this tells me what I need to know.

I’ve been studying some seemingly "simpler" poems and what I’ve learned from them is how often less really is more—

But not without intention.

The Two-Headed Calf by Laura Gilpin gets me. Every. Single. Time. It’s a two-stanza, nine-line poem that literally brings me to tears whenever I read it. But why? It’s so simple!

This poem’s strength is what it does not say.

read. no, seriously. read.

We write poetry to send a feeling to someone else; we read poetry to look through the keyhole into someone else’s life. Without this aspect, what would be the point?

Once you start doing things like reading with more and more intention, you will see the change in your own writing and self.