"Hey, you never know..."

Been discussing, with a couple of LJ friends, a long-contemplated return to one of the several writers' groups I used to attend. Along with the logistics of getting there and back--the one I'm considering is about 20 minutes from home--I'll need to prepare something to read to the group.

Lately, I've been thinking about that amazing group in Boston that Anne Sexton first attended as part of her on-going mental health regimen. While I'm sure there's always a case to be made for the theraputic value of the arts, my own interest is in the process of selecting, fine-tuning, and performing something that I feel is in near-finished form.

By contrast, Sexton and her group participated with the intention of "work-shopping" on-going projects. Which meant their expectation would be to follow up with substantial revision, based on the group's response.

Considering that another of its members was future literary light Maxine Kumin, you might wonder at my reluctance to engage in such a process. Part of the answer is ego and the other is that Sexton's group met under the auspices of a major university and was led by teacher, poet and critic John Holmes. So the resources available were really quite extraordinary.

While I'm no longer familiar with the membership of our local group, we used to hear a lot of "I don't really know that much about poetry but this is pretty good stuff." Which is doubtlessly well-intentioned, and occasionally gratifying, but not very helpful. The reality is that two of the three people whose opinions I most value, within the group, are also available to me outside of it.

That aside, I'm clearly more motivated to produce finished and readable work with the incentive that this forum provides. All things considered (sorry, Neil), it's a little like the NY State Lottery. "Hey, you never know..."