The traditional poet’s greatest challenge is surely the avoidance of cliché. It takes great effort to eradicate from a composition, made harder by the fact that in the throes of writing, it can be difficult to detect. Adding to the agony is the task of its extraction—oft at the cost of a much-loved idea.
Thoughts
My biggest challenge revising the “Autumn” poem is the refrain element of the original draft (every second stanza is a couplet with internal and end rhyme). My sentimental side wants to retain this approach—to wrestle with it and test my poetic abilities; my imaginative side wants to be liberated from its constraints and explore the possibilities of regular rhyming couplets. Presently, I am developing lines for both—whichever produces the better stanzas will win in the end.
“Autumn”, I thought, would be a simple exercise involving a few adjustments here and there to improve it. How wrong I was.
Forgotten Fields 