On the lucipo listserv there was a recent spate of discussions about projects and individual poems. I tend to value the book over the individual poem. I can name my favourite books much easier than my favourite poems.
However, Carl Martin helped me with his critique of projects. A project can delude the writer into proclaimations of profoundness. This is not always the case of course (Duncan/Olsen are excluded from this critique for example). This made me rethink form. Form, especially in Post-Avant poetics, seems highly valued. Form and book length projects. Whereas a lot of mainstream poetics have collections of individual poems. This is not always true. There are always exceptions.
I wanted to center book two of Resident Alien around kings. I also structured it in groups of three (three line poems as snapshots). Now I am l not satisfied. I realize the king idea is a little forced in places. it's forced because I want to make it thematically cohere. It's helped a lot to let go of that. Revising, rethinking, reworking. My energy is back in full swing!
Going to try out some revisions and new poems from RA 2 this weekend in Athens and Georgia.
Sometimes I feel like all the profound spiritual poetry is a fraud/delusion etc. Other times I desperately seek it.