By Virginia Watts ( a member of the Old Scratch Press Collective)
Several years ago, I was in an online poetry workshop with a woman called Joan. Even seated far away from each other in the real world and only together in the great, cold world of the internet, I felt a connection to her. What was it exactly. Her beautiful, novel, highly creative, arresting, heart rendered poetry for sure, but it was more than that. I appreciated how much thought she put into her critique of the other poetry in the group. I could tell she had taken a great deal of time to read and reread, to think and rethink, as I do when I am involved in writing critique groups, and I have and am a part of quite a few of those. I take my role as a fellow writer offering critique very seriously. Here’s the thing. No one can critique their own writing. It’s impossible. What you need to be the best you can be as a writer are fellow writers who give it their all when reading your work. People who are willing to always comment honestly on the work you circulate. In other works, you need people like Joan.
So, imagine how thrilled I was when Joan emailed me after the online workshop ended to see if I would be interested in joining a Sunday morning critique group of six other poets. I couldn’t say yes fast enough and that started years of the best morning of the week on my calendar. We are a group of diverse styles living in different east coast states. Currently four men and four woman because another has joined our group. Each Sunday, we take turns reading our draft poem and then the floor opens up to comments. Titles that don’t do enough work are called out. Areas that are confusing, messages that seem weak or not fully realized. How the poem looks on the page. Whole stanzas that sometimes just don’t need to be there. All things poetry and how to make it better. Every single Sunday I sign off and look at my poem as revised by the group and think. There is absolutely no way I could have written this poem in the final best form it can be without them.
A few years ago, the group put together a cooperative collection of poems available on Amazon called Poems from the Circle of Seven. A Sampler to Savor. One of the members’ sons kindly assisted us with our cover art which turned out beautifully. It was special and moving to see ourselves all together on the page inside the cover of one unified book. Special because something special happens every Sunday morning that I don’t think we can explain exactly. Call it chemistry. Call if magic. We have eight now, so I am sure at some point we’ll put together another collection.
And of course, while our writing brings us together, something we all care about, love to do and literally need in our lives, now we have a group friendship too. I can speak for myself in saying that less than a year ago I had open heart surgery and seeing the faces and hearing the words of encouragement before and after as I recovered meant a great deal to me. One of our members has a seriously ill spouse and we all grieve this. One has been going through the process of retiring and moving. On the flipside we have shared countless laughs about the ups and downs of real life. We have also heard about great adventures. Recently one member went skydiving. That made for an unforgettable poem. So, to writers everywhere, if you have the chance and are lucky enough to enter a circle of fellow writers sprint there and take your seat. It will uplift you and bring the greatest joy to your writing process.
OLD SCRATCH PRESS 