How Do You Know When a Poem Is Finished?

How do you know when a poem is finished? It is the kind of question new poets ask older poets. I have heard it in my classroom.   

"How Do I Know When a Poem Is Finished?" is Naomi Shihab Nye's poem answer.  It begins:

When you quietly close
the door to a room
the room is not finished.

It is resting. Temporarily.
Glad to be without you
for a while.

I use her poem (You can hear her read the full poem in the video below.) and also tell students that Paul Valery famously said "A poem is never finished, only abandoned."

In this time of immediate gratification, young poets often feel that their poem is finished as soon as they write that final word. I find that at poetry readings by famous poets or new poets at open readings, a frightening introduction to a poem is "Here is a poem that I wrote today."

There have been poems that I have written and when I was done, it felt finished. More typically, when I come back to the poem a day or weeks later with fresh eyes, I can better tell if it is complete. I would estimate that I revise poems about 90% of the time. The first draft that is a final version is rare - but it does happen.

Reading a new poem to someone or to a group that can give you honest feedback is very useful.  Standup comics tend to try out new material in small clubs where the stakes are lower before they use them in their act. They workshop the jokes. So, perhaps that new poem written today and then read at an open might be a way to test out a poem. Though I wouldn't expect much constructive feedback from an audience, a laugh at a line you hoped was funny or at a line you didn't want to be funny would be useful. Applause is a lousy indicator as it is sometimes just a courtesy clap.

How do you know when a poem is finished? Or are your poems never finished? Post a comment!!

Naomi Shihab Nye reading "How Do I Know When a Poem Is Finished" as part of Dear Poet, the Academy of American Poets' educational project for National Poetry Month 2015. 

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