My eye is better than my hand.

[novapsyche]

I notice that I'd be much better at reworking other people's poems than trying to come up with ideas of my own. I often come across poems that have a great nugget of a concept wrapped in weak language and poor execution, and I think to myself, "I could improve that." Why I can't come up with anything original on my own, I can't fathom.

Comments

[xiombarg.livejournal.com]

The best authors steal. Your problem is your focus on "original" thought. Nothing is truly original, and that's a good thing -- because building on things is what makes you comprehensible.

I suggest getting a book a poems by a long-dead, mediocre author and "revising" them. Those poems will, arguably, be yours and not the original author's -- especially after two or three revisions.