LITR 3731: Creative Writing 2008
Student Poetry Submission

Susan Butaud

A Serial Procrastinator

 

Hands shaking

Heart pounding

Gotta do it

Gotta do it

 

Search through journals

Find an idea

Don’t give up

Don’t give up

 

Daughter’s home

Give her time

It can wait

It can wait

 

Drive to practice

Come home, fix dinner

Write it later

Write it later

 

She’s all tucked in

No time to waste

Get to work

Get to work

 

      Mind is wandering…

                                                                            Ooh, House is on…

Stay on task

Stay on task

 

Do other work

Ahh, an idea!

Write it down

Write it down

 

Read it over

It’ll do

The assignment’s done.

 

Paper’s due

Need an idea

Gotta do it

    Gotta do it…

 

 

Revision Account

Writing has always been spontaneous for me.  Unfortunately, the spontaneity doesn’t usually come to me until the night before the paper, story or poem is due.  For this assignment, I decided not to procrastinate.  I went home the night it was assigned and wrote a poem.  Unfortunately, when I read it the next day, I was far from pleased with it.  It was not my voice, but the voice of which I thought would meet with the class’ approval.  So being a serial procrastinator, I decided to just put it off.  It was when I was doing the first reading assignment for this class that it came to me.  Write what I know. 

I was a little nervous to present my poem to the class.  My writing has always been so personal to me.  I was afraid that the class would rip it to shreds and it would no longer be my work.  I was wrong.  The class gave me suggestions that helped me to tweak different lines by adding or deleting a word. 

The Thought Process of a Serial Procrastinator

The title was entirely too long and a suggestion was made to change or alter it.  I knew that the title had to do with my constant procrastination.  In the end, I decided to simply shorten it.

 

Hands are shaking

Heart is pounding

Gotta do it

Gotta do it

These words were eliminated to set the meter of the poem.

 

Search through journals

Find an idea

Don’t give up

Don’t give up

This stanza seemed to work for everyone so I didn’t change a word.

 

Daughter’s home

Time for her

Set it aside

Set it aside

The suggestions for this stanza were to change the wording.  I was please with the changes because the new wording made the poem flow better.

 

Drive to Cheerleading

Come home fix dinner

I’ll do it later

I’ll do it later

Since my daughter is involved in other activities at different times of the year, the word cheerleading was changed to the word practice in order to be less specific.  The next line was separated by a comma, and the last two lines were change because they were too wordy.

 

She’s all tucked in

No time for me

Get to work

Get to work

These words were changed because it didn’t make since.  When I changed it, it brought the stanza together.

 

Mind is wandering

Ooh, House is on

Stay on task

Stay on task

It was suggested that by changing the way these two lines appear in the poem would help the reader see my mind wandering.  I think it works.

 

Do reading assignment

Get an idea

Write it down

Write it down

I changed these lines in order show how quickly ideas hit me.

 

Read it over

Pleased with it

Poem’s done

Poem’s done.

The second line was changed because as a procrastinator, I’m never pleased with the end result.  The word poem was changed to assignment to make it a more ambiguous assignment.

The last stanza was added in order to show the unending cycle of my procrastination.

 

            I am very pleased with the end result of my revised poem.  It is still my work and still in my voice.  After reading and re-reading my poem, there is nothing else that I would do to change it.  Although it is comical in nature, I feel that this poem shows how my life really is.  I can blame my procrastination on my busy life, but I allow myself to be easily distracted in order to put things off.  As for the future of this poem, I’m submitting it for publications in a literary magazine.