Personally, I think every poem (with the exception of spontaneous spoken word) needs to be retouched after it is originally penned because:
Every poem, to become art, must be deliberately penned, with sifted words.
Most times, what this means is that, after the inspiration, the true writer must tampers with the so-called ‘inspiration’, just the way a painter retouches the canvass and the sculptor chisels his block of wood.
Sometimes dirt comes with the fished thoughts and this must be washed off via editing – dotting the I, crossing the T, punctuating where needed and substituting words where needed.
It is simply finishing; Do you leave a mansion unpainted? Do you leave a fabricated shoe unpolished? Do you leave a soup unseasoned?
…Same for the poet and his creations.
NOTE: This is just an expanded comment made to a young poet who wanted to know if ‘inspired’ poems need to be edited before they are good enough.
by Kukogho Iruesiri Samson
