Let’s step away from politics for a moment.

Lately I’ve been working hard on Gerard’s poetry book. I’ve discovered that editing poetry is different than editing essays – in some ways easier and in some ways more difficult. And of course I can’t ask Gerard for help, although it might be a novel idea to go to a medium with the question: “In this particular poem of yours, did you mean to leave out the period at the end? Poetic license and all that?”

So I just have to wing it. Emily Dickinson’s editors had the same questions, I’m sure, and the very first efforts at editing her work sparked has since sparked controversy:

The poems published then were usually edited significantly to fit conventional poetic rules. Her poems were unique for her era; they contain short lines, typically lack titles, and often use slant rhyme as well as unconventional capitalization and punctuation. Many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality (two recurring topics in letters to her friends), aesthetics, society, nature, and spirituality.

Although Dickinson’s acquaintances were most likely aware of her writing, it was not until after she died in 1886 – when Lavinia, Dickinson’s younger sister, discovered her cache of poems — that her work became public. Her first published collection of poetry was made in 1890 by her personal acquaintances Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Mabel Loomis Todd, though they heavily edited the content.

Gerard led a life so different from Dickinson’s as to be almost its polar opposite. And he certainly didn’t write 1800 poems, as she did; I don’t envy her editors that task. But his themes also are primarily (although not entirely) death and immortality, nature, and spirituality.

When he and I talked about poetry, Gerard often said he admired Dickinson. And I discover, as I delve more deeply into his work, that sometimes in his shorter poems I see distant echoes.

I also had to decide, as with the essay book, whether to include photos. Gerard loved the visuals and when he published poems or essays on his blog they always included beautiful photos. I can’t use the same photos for various reasons, so if I use photos in the book I must either use my own, or photos available without copyright. So it would be easier, and the book could be sold more cheaply, if I left out the photos. But I find that, without them, the work just doesn’t look like Gerard’s. The poems look like they’re missing something.

So now I’m working on the visuals to match the poems. My guess is that the book will be available for sale in a month or two. Whether there will be as many takers as there were for the essay book I really don’t know; what do you think?