manuscript update

total pages: 51
number of sections: 0

i've tossed out the section breaks! the table of contents looks odd, but it feels right: an unbroken column of titles. no gaps between the titles. just a column of nouns, adjectives, and verbs, etc.

i am nervous about the change. it's drastic. i've spent years working on an order, and that work always included section breaks. i never once thought about getting rid of the section breaks.

until now.

section breaks weren't working for my manuscript; they were segregating my poems: surreal poems here, border poems there, family poems here. yes, yes, i know that's my fault. i couldn't find a way to cluster the themes/ motifs/ obsessions in my poems into sections that enhanced the reading of the collection. i failed.

once i took out the section breaks something happened: all the walls disappeared: i placed a border poem next a surreal poem and i saw for the first time (!!) the links between the poems. i saw how one poem lead the reader to the next. this happpened again and again.

but in a sense i still have section breaks. i'm using jarring juxtapositions as breaks in my manuscript. by placing a fragment poem right after a family lyric, i'm hoping to rupture the flow, to disrupt the reader's expectations.

i think it's working.

ha. famous last words.