🗂️ The Epic (and Occasionally Maddening) Quest to Organize My Poems

This morning I have spent time doing the bane of my existence: busy work. Administrative shit. You know, wrangling the poems—because apparently they can’t wrangle themselves.

Word Raccoon is not happy. We wrote a poem this morning, and she says writing about a clock’s tongue is way too engrossing to now be dealing with digital folders.

I remind her we have lunch plans with three friends in a bit and we must stay up a level anyway. Don’t you remember how that woman stared at us earlier when we were writing a poem? We must’ve looked a hot mess.

Why Organizing Poetry Matters

Here’s the issue with my darling poems: with over 200 of them (micro and otherwise) and apparently no end in sight, I HAVE to be able to know where they are.

Submission tracker? Check. I’ve had that for a while now, since I used a version of it when I was submitting short stories.

A certain someone asked me yesterday if I have an alphabetized masterlist of my poems. Actually, I do. At least up until last week. Word Raccoon wanted to stick her tongue out at him but she knew he meant well. What does he take us for, a rank amateur?

The Struggle is Real

A couple of days ago, I was submitting to a themed call for pop culture poems and AFTER I had submitted my packet, I remembered one that would have been perfect—EXCEPT I HAD FORGOTTEN IT EXISTED.

The struggle is real. I also ran across a poem with three different titles. SMH. I need to be able to figure out which I’m keeping and which I’m 86’ing.

My Messy Old Process

Here’s what I used to do (homebrewed in the worst of ways):

Create a poem in my notes app (the thumbs want what the thumbs want).
When a poem seems to have a spark, email it to myself.
From there, paste it into a Word doc so I could revise and submit.

Kinda messy, am I right?

My New (Slightly Less Messy) System

This is what I’m hoping to do from now on:

Steps one and two, same.
Step three: Transfer the unrevised poem to Google Docs and place it in the In Progress folder.
Step four: When it’s finished, put it in the “ready to submit” folder and any drafts of it go into “archive.” At least that’s the plan. Sigh. Word Raccoon DOES NOT like structure! She says that while Ralph Waldo Emerson (why does he get three names?) is not wrong when he says “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,” that it would be more right if he said rigidity is the hobgoblin of little minds. She prickles at bean counters, at…breathe, raccoon.
Psst…when she understands the value in it, she can be made to do what needs doing. And keeping track of these poems makes sense. So don’t worry too much about us — we’ve got this. (Maybe?)
Chaos is a great muse, but sometimes she needs a leash. Not literally. Ugh.

My Geeky Folder Breakdown

Oh, you want the geeky folder breakdown, do you?
(Caveat: this is just what I am currently trying. This could well change next week.)

IF I SHARE THESE FOLDER TITLES YOU HAVE TO NOT THINK I’M BEING GRANDIOSE, OK? OK??

📁 Chapbooks & Collections
📁 Archived and Abandoned
📁 Featured on My Blog (limits submission possibilities after, but sometimes I can’t help myself)
📁 In Progress
📁 Prompts & Fragments
📁 Published
📁 Ready to Submit
📁 Submission Materials & Templates
📁 Submitted
📁 To Organize (That one’s gonna get cluttered, but at least it’s a “Hey, stick it here until you’re feeling ambitious.”)

How did they do it before computers? I would have lost my will to write.

My Masterlist Labels

As to my masterlist, these labels seem most useful to me:

Poem
Status
Link to File
First Line
Theme
Submitted
Published
Archived
Notes

The Ongoing Battle with Word Raccoon

Word Raccoon wants to strike a deal: she says she will write the poems if I will do the admin.

Thank you but no thank you. We will write them together, you little tyrant!

I’ve taken to a second evening session of writing most nights, just me and my lovely sun porch. It’s not as productive a time, because I’m usually tired, but it keeps me in the stream and keeps me from watching too much TV, which not only enervates but also irritates me.

I’m not out here looking to win a couch potato award. I value my time more than that. (Not saying some shows aren’t totally worth watching—and yes, when I can’t sleep I go hard on those YouTube shorts.)

Let’s Help Each Other

If you have other tips to organize poetry, please LMK. If you want to borrow these, please. Creatives should be helping one another. The less of this we have to figure out, the more time we have to create something beautiful.

Don’t you think we need more of that, especially right now?

Word Raccoon has other things she wants to say but wait a breath, girl. This is enough.