Writing Is a Mess!

I never get a poem right on the first try. In fact, most writers have to work and work to get their words to say exactly the right thing.
Here are two poems from It's Disgusting—and We Ate It! along with some of my attempts to find a "just-right" poem in the 20,000+ words of the English language. See if you can guess what the poem is about before you get to the end!

slimy as worms
made by germs
grows green fur
sharp as a burr
stinks like feet
worse in the heat
don't call it cheese

it's a milk disease

Pieces of Rough Drafts
"The Thing in the Back of the Refrigerator"

Look how hard it was to find the right words (and check out some of the dumb ideas that didn't make it into the poem!):

milk gone bad

with germs from our feet

marches off to war

you call it cheddar

I call it "Sir"

milk gone bad

with our feet's stinky germs

jumps off the pizza
and runs down the street
yells at a crowded fire
"am I to eat?"

milk gone bad

as slimy as worms

starts a civil war

you call it cheddar

I call it "Sir"

milk gone bad

grows blue germs

grows green fur

slimy like worms

grows blue fur
stinks like feet
what's it for --
is this to eat?

milk gone bad

to jump off the pizza

cottage cheddar swiss

made by germs

smells like feet

moldy if it's blue

* * *

This next poem is a type of very short poem called a haiku. I wrote it as an imaginary description of the invention of sushi, a Japanese rice dish often made with raw fish.

Season of Invention
Whoops	I plum forgot
to fry this fish	Forgive me
I was spring dreaming

Pieces of Rough Drafts
"Season of Invention"


Whoops	I plum forgot
to cook this carp	Guess we'll have
to order pizza

Whoops	I plum forgot
to cook this carp	Forgive me
the night was so sweet

Whoops	I plum forgot
to cook this carp	Forgive me
hey!	this ain't so bad

But wait --	This ain't bad!
I was dreaming spring

You can see some really silly ideas for this poem too. But a couple of the lines that didn't fit into the finished poem may even have been pretty good! That's one of the gifts of writing different versions of the same poem—you sometimes discover material for more than one poem.