Sparks & Starts: "How Dark the Beginning"

A poem's initial inspiration & early drafts

Hi, Friend.

In the last Sparks & Starts, I shared some early drafts of “During Lockdown, I Let the Dog Sleep in My Bed Again.” Today I’m sharing the initial handwritten notes for “How Dark the Beginning,” located in a hedgehog-print notebook that my friend Sarah Byrne, editor of The Well Review, sent me from Ireland. (Thanks, Sarah!)

It’s a vulnerable thing to share one’s initial notes and roughest drafts. In many cases, the idea clicks early on, but the phrasing isn’t there yet. Or a few key phrases are present, but they’re mixed in with flotsam and jetsam that won’t make the final version. If we’re lucky, the initial spark catches and grows into a poem in time. The messy notes make the eventual poem possible. (This particular poem was first published in Poetry, and was later included in my fourth book of poems, Goldenrod.)