Revision - Hard Labor to Give Birth

I took time away from one manuscript to put together a chapbook, and started asking poet friends to look it over to give me comments. I asked if there were poems that should just come out, or ones that needed heavy revision to earn their place. Is that what I really wanted? Apparently not. Because when these excellent poets and astute reviewers said yes, yes indeed this poem or that probably didn't measure up, or needed significant work, I was not ready to hear it. I had to put the manuscript down. Let it sit. I had a hard time opening it again. But with a little time (too much, really) under the bridge, I arrayed all the comments on each poem side-by-side and took a deep breath to go through them one at a time. Deep breathing really does help. And what I saw was that every time a poet pointed to a poem as weak, or worked to articulate an issue, if I let go a little, I could see changes I wanted to make -- maybe not a wholesale revision, but things that I hadn't admitted were giving me uncomfortable nudges all along and needed attention. I did not end up removing any poems, but I did end up significantly revising several, but not necessarily ones that one reviewer or another called out as not working. The important information was that I saw things I had glossed over, thanks to these articulate and careful poets grappling with my poems. I can't thank you all enough!