How Long Does A Poem Take?

I've just had a poem, The Magician, accepted for issue 78 of ACUMEN poetry magazine. My records show that I first revised this poem in 1986, and made the final adjustments to it in 2008.  I sometimes complain that the wonderful world of poetry moves at a mollusc's pace, but it has taken me around 28 years to finish this poem and get it into print. Then again, it is said that Basho devoted nine years (not continuously) to perfecting one haiku. And is it perfect?

Norman MacCaig liked to say that writing a poem took as long as smoking one cigarette.

(Incidentally, ACUMEN first appeared in 1985. I started writing in the early 1980s and first appeared in the magazine, with a couple of sonnets, in issue 7, in 1988. We have aged together!)

A propos of not very much, here's a photograph of a less-aged me (well it is my blog) in the company of Michael Grieve and Norman MacCaig (caught between cigarettes).

 

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